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The second season premiere of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" is doing better than "Prison Break," but overnight ratings have dropped the show to a new series low.

"Sarah Connor" earned a 4.1 rating/6 share according to Fast National ratings from Nielsen Media Research, finishing behind "Deal or No Deal" on NBC and possibly behind Monday Night Football on ESPN, ratings of which were not available.

That is well below last season's average of 5.6/9, and even below the first season low of 4.5/7 as network television tries to compete with cable offerings.

But it wasn't all bad news for "Terminator." Not only was it Fox's most-watched program (it beat "Prison Break" by one-tenth of a ratings point), it also fueled a major win for Fox in the key advertising demographic of adults between the ages of 18-49, its 2.5 rating beating out NBC at 2.2.

NBC won the night with a 4.9/8, however, just ahead of CBS' 4.8/8. Fox finished third with a 4.0/6, beating out ABC and The CW.

With this being the beginning of the television season for network genre programs, it's not exactly the start fans were hoping for. "Sarah Connor" was a bubble show last season despite an average rating that had it the fourth-most watched genre program behind "Lost," "Heroes" and "Pushing Daisies." Of course, some of that average was boosted by a huge series premiere jolted up by a major post-season NFL game.

It sometimes takes viewers a little bit of time to get back into watching new episodes of television during the week, so "Sarah Connor" could be nothing more than a victim of straggling viewers. However, if the Terminator show doesn't want to be a bubble show again, it may definitely need to see a boost by at least a million viewers to keep it viable.

Fast Nationals usually provide a snapshot of what Americans are watching by pulling numbers from the top urban markets that includes both live viewing and same-day timeshifted viewing. A rating point generally represents more than 1.1 million households while the share indicates the percentage of televisions turned on that was tuned to the specific program. These numbers typically shift when final ratings are issued.

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