ABC's "The Nine" Taken Hostage During Sweeps

I guess fans of The Nine are going to have to wait for quite some time to find out what exactly happened in that bank.

ABC has announced that it has pulled struggling freshman series The Nine from its schedule, effective immediately. The news comes as the networks complete November sweeps and The Nine has taken an even further ratings hit since Lost disappeared off of ABC's fall schedule a few weeks back.

Despite airing promos for this week's installment of The Nine after Wednesday's episode, ABC has opted to replace the hostage drama with 20/20 this week. Next week, the timeslot will be filled with a new Wednesday edition of Primetime.

According to ABC, The Nine will return later in the season (ostensibly to burn off the remainder of its original 13-episode order), but seeing is believing as the network said the same thing about fellow frosher Six Degrees.

In the meantime, the few fans of The Nine better hope that the producers tied up any loose ends in those 13 produced episodes, should they turn up eventually on DVD.