Actually having WB producing the show is the one thing that the show has in it's favor. WB is footing (at least most of) the production costs for the show. Fox is distributing it and getting the ad revenue from the live viewings and from the commercials that run during their On-Demand rebroadcasts. They might be contributing some to the show's production cost but WB is the main source for production money.
Fox gets huge money from advertisers. The only problem is that they promise the advertisers ratings. So if the overnights fall short, they factor in the DVR viewings, the online viewings, and other sources (non-Nielsen numbers) for showing that more people are actually watching than just the overnights.
We also have to remember that TSCC is being streamed into colleges and universities all over the country - there's no way that we're going to know what the numbers are from that. I'm guessing that they're huge - they were at least for FRINGE - Fringe only pulled 9miliion it's premiere night and less than 8 for the rebroadcast, yet Fox somehow came up w/ 23 million viewers who watched it. They had to factor in online viewings into that number. Online viewing revenues goto Fox - WB gets the download dollars.
If they're getting an additional 2-3 million in online viewings for TSCC - that boots it up to 7-9 million range and that's before DVR numbers are factored in. If DVR numbers can (and should) add an additional 20-30% to the overall numbers - overall TSCC could be hitting as high as 10-13million per episode which makes it a hit during a VERY difficult time slot.
Currently both eps are #1 and #2 on Itunes for Sci-Fi shows. Prison Break is 1-5 in the action area for iTunes. TSCC is all over Amazon for their download episodes.
So why is it a good thing that WB is producing the show?
WB has a LONG history of supporting their TV shows. Think about Friends and ER. Both are/were produced by WB and even when ratings went down they continued to front the funds for them. So long as the networks can continue to reel in advertisers, they'll keep a show on the air.
WB stands behinds it's shows - look at Smallville - that thing's been on for 8 years and had had as low as 3 million viewers. Granted, it only costs about 1 million to produce an ep whereas TSCC is likely 3 times that - but WB sells the hell out the show in DVD sales and overseas which makes it viable for them to keep it going. Also SV is currently their only superhero franchise that's alive. They even promised 2 additional seasons to Supernatural even though it routinely only hits 3 million a week in the US. The show is hugely popular overseas and does well online.
WB has made deals all over the world to air TSCC - it's a growing fan favorite all over. WB as a company is in a state of turmoil for their film division.
1) Dark Knight was a monster hit - but w/ the death of Heath Ledger the series is on hold until Chris Nolan can figure out what to do for a third film.
2) Their superhero film division is grounded - the JLA movie that was going to be their star for 2010 got killed due to behind the door squabbling and the writer's strike. They're rapidly working on trying to get some features together (including a whole Superman franchise reboot) but they won't have anything ready to watch for likely 3-4 years.
3) Harry Potter only has 3 films left.
4) The Watchmen - which was supposed to be their big Winter movie is now snarled in court - Fox claims rights to it and they are NOT interested in sharing the profits from the film - they want the film shelved and never released.
So what does this leave for them?
Terminator.
Terminator Salvation has been relatively on schedule and will likely be ready for it's summer release. Other than Harry Potter, it's their only big budget film for 2009 and the 2 sequels that will follow it are planned for filling up those empty holes that they have since they don't have any superhero films to fill out their Summer blockbuster lists.
Factor in Joss Whedon asking to halt production on Dollhouse, WB desperately NEEDING TSCC on the air to keep the buzz of Terminator alive to help flow into ratings gold for TS when it's released, Fox and WB will likely stick w/ the show even w/ it's ratings being lackluster here in the beginning.
We just have to do our part to make sure that the show STAYS on the air by doing everything that we can to keep it going.
Chat the show up w/ your co-workers. I brought in my DVDs and gave them to a coworker and hooked him on the show this week. If you have friends who DVR it - tell them to catch up NOW. Buy the show online - put money back into WB's pocket so that they've got the $$ to produce future episodes.