O.R. Mishap: CBS Cuts "3 Lbs."

The diagnosis is not good for 3 Lbs.

After just three (yes, count 'em, three!) airing, CBS has yanked medical drama 3 Lbs. off the schedule, effective immediately.

The drama, which starred Stanley Tucci, Mark Feuerstein (his series kiss of death continues!), and Indira Varma, was unceremoniously canned by CBS, which rushed the midseason medical drama onto the air.

3 Lbs replaced the crime drama Smith (which CBS also cancelled after three airings) on Tuesdays at 10 pm. Like Smith, 3 Lbs. didn't deliver the audience CBS was craving, averaging a rather unhealthy 8 million viewers. Additionally, the series' ratings were 16% below Smith.

Call it a case of schadenfreude, but I can't help but smile when a cancelled cult audience series' replacement show winds up doing worse than the series it replaced. Ha-bloody-ha.

In other scheduling news, ABC will air five episodes of newsmagazine Primetime on Wednesdays at 10 pm, subbing in for freshman drama The Nine, which it put on hiatus over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Newsmag will air a limited series dubbed Primetime: Basic Instinct which will use hidden camera to document how people react to an array of frustrating/stressful situations, such as misbehaving children, annoying public cell phone use, and offensively prejudicial remarks from cab drivers.

The limited series is part of a 48-episode order for the season of Primetime, which has yet to receive a firm timeslot for the 2006-2007 season. It's unclear whether Primetime will remain in the slot as ABC has yet to release its January schedule, but given that they've yet to find a decent 10 pm companion for Lost, trying a newsmag rather than another serialized drama might be just the ticket.