Sarah Connor will be back

Fox is bringing Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles back for Season 2. The announcement comes as a bit of a surprise. "Sarah Connor," which fills out the story of the "Terminator" movies, premiered well, but viewership then tapered off. That, combined with the overall television slump during the writers strike and the show's reliance on costly special effects, led to some speculation that the show would be, well, terminated.

Still, there were enough viewers that Fox's announcement this morning proclaims it the season's No. 1 new scripted series among adults ages 18 to 49. (Not mentioned among those qualifiers: Hits were far and few this past season.)

Regardless. It's good news for those of us who invested couch time watching Season 1 -- and trying to figure out the often-fuzzy plot -- and feared it would all go to waste if/when the show was cancelled. Thirteen new episodes have been ordered by Fox, home of the spin-off in the US, as was expected after it proved to be one of the year's highest rated new series.

In the UK Chronicles was by far the most high-profile show on Virgin 1, and its opening episode increased the channel's average audience seven-fold.

Fox has also decided to show season two this autumn despite the first run airing in January. Entertainment president Kevin Reilly said the network may also give an early order for another nine episodes.

Additionally, Variety reports there is a possibility for another spin-off of some form to run alongside Chronicles. "It was a very ambitious show, and I myself was wondering if they could take on this mythology on a weekly basis," said Reilly. "I'm excited to see them take another whack at it. In a season where we saw plenty of shows come and go, even during the strike, with soft competition, this show found an audience. There was a definite uptick toward the end."

The series follows Connor and her son, played by Lena Headey and Thomas Dekker, as they take on enemy robots.