UPDATED: Starz Ends the Party: Pay Cabler Axes Party Down

Looks like it's the end of the road for Party Down.

Despite critical acclaim and cult-like status among viewers, pay cabler Starz has cancelled Party Down after just two seasons.

Deadline's Nellie Andreeva broke the news of the series cancellation this morning, reporting that Starz had opted not to review Party Down and fellow Friday night lead-out Gravity, the latter of which aired for a single season.

"While the off-beat comedy has become an instant cult classic, I hear at the end of the day its appeal was deemed not wide enough to keep the show beyond its recently concluded Season 2," writes Andreeva, who goes on to say that Starz may make an official announcement later today about the fates of both series.

Sadly, it seems as though Party Down is in fact a goner, a decision that I believe to be myopic, foolhardy, and heartbreaking in equal measure, particularly as the series was starting to catch on with viewers thanks to Netflix's Instant Viewing function and DVD releases. But the series was, after all, developed by newly installed Starz czar Chris Albrecht's predecessor and the development exec, Bill Hamm, responsible for shepherding both series (along with breakout hit Spartacus) was let go earlier this year. (All of which I write about and presage in my Daily Beast feature from April here.)

UPDATE #1: It's now been confirmed by Starz: "After careful consideration, we’ve decided not to continue on with subsequent seasons of Party Down and Gravity,” said Stephan Shelanski, Starz's EVP of programming, in a statement. “We’re grateful to everyone involved in the shows, and are proud to have had them on the channel. Starz remains committed to aggressively expanding our original programming lineup."

UPDATE #2: I reached writer/executive producer John Enbom via email this morning to express my disappointment about the cancellation of Party Down and just received a very heartfelt reply from John as he leaves for vacation.

"What can we say? We are saddened the show won't be coming back and we won't get to spend another season with this wonderful cast and crew," wrote Enbom to me via email. "It's like being told your summer camp has been closed. But at the end of the day, we're still proud of our two seasons and grateful we had the chance to make them."

All I can say is: John, we're right there with you. For those of us who knew and loved the series, Party Down is going to be missed intensely.

What do you think of the news? Is Starz making a terrible mistake, even with several of the cast members now unavailable to film more than a handful of episodes? Should Party Down have gone on for a third season? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Must All British TV Series Be Adapted?: FOX Plans US Version of "Spaced"

Yet another entry from the annals of what in the hell are they thinking: FOX has given a put pilot commitment to an American version of.... wait for it... Spaced.

While, yes, The Office proved that you can successfully adapt a British television format for US television, it seems that no one was paying much attention to the recent crop of botched attempts like Viva Laughlin, The Thick of It, and The IT Crowd. Hell, does no one remember Coupling?

What you're seeing right now is my jaw spinning out of control on the floor. If there's one series that really shouldn't ever be messed with and transformed into a US comedy, it's Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson's brilliantly mordant series Spaced, which ran for two seasons beginning in 1999 on the UK's Channel 4.

The series was an early pairing between actor/co-writer Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright, who would go on together to bring us such feature films as Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Spaced, which aired Stateside on cabler BBC America, has a deceptively simple premise: a pair of young sad sack slackers, Tim and Daisy, move into together in what appears like the perfect apartment, but with one hitch: their doddering landlady Marsha will only rent them the flat if they pose as an actual romantic couple. Hilarity ensues.

The setup is in fact a convenient excuse to bring two of the most woefully underemployed and charming slackers together under one roof, along with the cast of quirky characters, and a plethora of Generation X pop culture references, circa 1999. As I've previously discussed, the sight gag alone of Tim and Daisy transforming themselves unwittingly into Scooby Doo's Shaggy and Velma is alone worth the price of admission.

Which is what makes me so sad. Spaced on its own, as it exists, is as close to television perfection as you can get over the course of 14 hilarious, absurd, and touchingly funny episodes. The fact that it's survived nearly ten years without an attempted American version has made me hopeful that it would never be tampered with by US networks.

Alas.

FOX has hired former Will & Grace writer Adam Barr to adapt the series. He'll executive produce the pilot, along with McG and Robert Green. Warner Bros. Television, Wonderland Sound & Vision, and Granada are all behind this pilot adaptation.

Personally, I love Spaced and think that Pegg, Stevenson, and Wright's series is absolutely sublime but as for any Americans looking to catch a glimpse of this witty and hilarious series, you'd do much better to try and catch the original.

Chain of (Awful) Title: "Dancing with the Stars" Spinoff Title Revealed

Every now and then you stumble on a monumentally bad title for a television series. Often it's the name of an equally horrific series (Shasta McNasty and One Tree Hill come to mind) and sometimes the series is actually good in spite of such a bad title (Dirty Sexy Money, Samantha Who).

But then there's the rare gem of a pitiful title that belies not only an inherent weakness but an ability to make the American public question all rules of grammar, spelling, and good taste.

I'm talking, ladies and gentlemen, about the title for the spinoff series of ABC's hit reality competition series Dancing with the Stars. It's been previously referred to as Dance X or Dance Wars; those titles positively gleam with thoughtfulness and intelligence in comparison.

According to a source close to the production, the title that the producers have now chosen is... DanSing.

Before you ask, that's not a typo; yes, the S in the middle of the misspelled word is capitalized. As for the why, I'm told by the same source--who wishes to remain anonymous--that the competition series is broadening its purview from strictly (come) dancing to dancing and singing.

Yes, the competition series--led by Dancing with the Stars impresarios Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba and hosted by Drew Lachey--will be an all-singing, all-dancing review in which the teams will compete both vocally as well as, er, choreographically.

I'm not sure why the shift in focus here other than an attempt to steal a singing beat (heh) from American Idol, which launches in January. But, seriously, couldn't they at least have come up with a better title than that?

Looking for Jaw-Droppingly Bad TV? Try CBS' "Kid Nation"

Sometimes I do feel as though I am a glutton for punishment. Case in point: the fact that I actually sat down to watch CBS' horrific reality series/child labor law violation Kid Nation in an effort to bring you, my readers, a complete picture of just what's going on in television. (I will, however, admit that I didn't waste my time watching it at night but caught it the following day.)

Say what you want about the egregious violations of child labor laws and about the fact that these children's parents willingly signed away their rights during this production, but the truth is that Kid Nation is just mind-bogglingly bad television. I do wish I could understand the mindset of both the producers who thought up this exercise in craptacularness as well as the CBS programming and development executives who believed that adults would tune in to see a bunch of kids trying to win $20,000 gold stars and cleaning out latrines in a desert town. (I also don't understand why they'd pair it with lead-out Criminal Minds, which opened with shots of gruesome corpses seconds after Kid Nation ended.)

The premise: 40 adorable moppets are given the chance to fend for themselves in a New Mexico ghost town to see if they can create a working, orderly society better than the adults who tried and failed to make the same town in the past. Hmmm, so are producers saying that Bonanza City (teehee!) was, er, a real town at some point? I'm not entirely sure, but from the "authentic" historical diaries that the kids discover, it sure seems like some producer went out of their way to make the kids think so.

Along the way, the kids compete in way-too-confusing challenges (the premiere episode featured something about pumping colored-water from pipes) to determine who will complete what job within the new society: upper class (um, sure), merchants, cooks, and laborers. That last category should have been called "slaves" in my opinion considering what they are making eight-year-olds do, but, hey, at least they get paid ten cents for their troubles. Kids squabble, cry, and complain about anything and everything. They go rabbit hunting, cook meals, and try to organize themselves. At various points, irritating host Jonathan Karsh pops up to taunt them with prizes or advance the "story," at one point giving Gold Star winner Sophia a key to a locked building containing the only phone in Bonanza City. (How can this man sleep at night?)

I watched the episode with my jaw on the floor. Kid Nation has got to be one of the most appalling, exploitative concepts on television to date, yet it attempts to wear its earnestness on its sleeve, believing that it is a worthy "social experiment," rather than a demeaning way to sell advertising. Sure, the premiere was presented with limited commercial interruption but I couldn't help but see the haunting faces of little pre-teen indentured servants every time a commercial break came on.

But leave aside the legal and moral issues surrounding the series and the biggest horror of Kid Nation is the fact that it's just bad, mawkish television disguised as social-minded entertainment. And no amount of gold stars, however valuable, can change that.

Kid Nation airs Wednesday nights at 8 pm ET/PT on CBS.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Ghost Whisperer (CBS); 1 vs. 100 (NBC); Friday Night SmackDown (CW; 8-10 pm); America's Funniest Home Videos (ABC); Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? (FOX)

9 pm: The Unit (CBS); Las Vegas (NBC); 20/20 (ABC); Nashville (FOX)

10 pm: NUMB3RS (CBS); Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC); 20/20 (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Doctor Who on Sci Fi.

This week on Doctor Who ("Utopia"), Captain Jack Harkness (of Torchwood fame) returns when the TARDIS makes a visit to Cardiff; the Doctor encounters a professor at the end of the universe. Is the Doctor really the very last Time Lord? Find out tonight.

Ever Wonder What the Hell Went Wrong with NBC's "Coupling"?

I loved the UK Coupling. Still do. Everything about the series, from co-creator Steven Moffat (who's been popping up with more than a few Doctor Who writing credits to his name lately), was absolutely brilliant, from the hysterical and taut writing to the memorable characters. I own the DVDs and have watched them repeatedly.

So what exactly went wrong with the US adaptation of Coupling, which aired on NBC back in 2003 and never became the Friends-sized hit Jeff Zucker and NBC hoped it would?

TV Week's James Hibberd has the story, from Moffat's own mouth. It's only a paragraph but it's blunt and to the point.

My favorite bit: "If you really want a job to work, don’t get Jeff Zucker’s team to come help you because they’re not funny."

Touché, Steven, touché.

Peacock Snags Posh and Becks for Reality Series

Following a tense bidding war, NBC has signed a deal for an untitled reality series documenting every moment of Victoria "Posh" Beckham's move to Los Angeles with husband, soccer star David Beckham. Reportedly, the ex-Spice Girl has been offered £10 million to do the series.

The series will be executive produced by American Idol's Simon Fuller (who, not so coincidentally, used to represent Posh and the rest of the Spice Girls back in the day) through his 19 Entertainment shingle. NBC is said to want to air the series as early as this summer.

But the question is: Do we really care?

I'm not entirely sure why NBC (desperate though they might be for another ratings hit) would spend this kind of dough on an already super-overexposed celebrity couple that most people don't bat an eyelash over outside of Blighty.

In fact, the only super-couples I'm interested in seeing on NBC next season are The Office's Jim and Pam and Liz Lemon and Jack Donaghy on the still-not-renewed 30 Rock.

Cursed Numbers: Why "Lost" Seems to Be Losing Viewers

Maybe the computer countdown digits aren't Lost's only cursed numbers, after all.

Longtime readers of Televisionary will remember that I sided very much against ABC's decision to pull Lost for 13 weeks in a (now fatal) attempt to launch a new serialized drama Day Break. I think, between the failure of Day Break and the horrific erosion of viewers for Lost, that it was a monumental error on ABC's part to yank Lost for so long... and to return it to a third timeslot in three years.

If you recall, I had sat down with the producer of a top US series (here called Mr. Producer for the sake of anonymity and mystery) to get his take on Lost's controversial hiatus (hint: he too was against it), and he's kindly returned with some further thoughts, now that the series has returned to the airwaves.

So, what does Mr. Producer think of the ABC execs who decided to schedule the season this way? "Those foolish programming execs must be eating crow now," he said, "as Lost has hemorrhaged half its audience from last season, destroying a valuable programming asset that was bringing in millions in revenue."

It was those execs that made some enormous blunders in scheduling the early six episodes of Lost (a mere appetizer, if you ask me) in the fall and then holding off on any new episodes until midseason, but they definitely compounded the problem by shifting it to a later timeslot at 10 pm. According to Mr. Producer: "ABC let time slot competition Criminal Minds expand its audience, further cemented by CBS posting it in the sweet spot after the Super Bowl. With Idol in the mix, and Minds achieving sky-high ratings, ABC felt it had no choice to move Lost to a later time."

So the execs made the only choice at their disposal then, right? "No, if the execs couldn't stop their trigger-fingers from itching, they should have actually moved it to 8 pm, thus exposing it to a greater audience who has just sat down to watch television," Mr. Producer continued. "For the most part, Idol would be out of its way (excluding its Hollywood audition rounds), and its competition would have simply been a mix of reality shows (Beauty and the Geek/Top Model), the severely ratings starved drama Friday Night Lights, the similarly hiatus-scheduled Jericho, and Bones. Lost would have cut a bloody path through all those dramas and perhaps would have sent Friday Night Lights to its shallow grave."

But wasn't the old complaint that Lost's original timeslot (that would be Wednesdays at 8 pm) was too early? Our producer friend doesn't agree with that at all. In fact, he believes that Lost is actually a great family show and the move to the 10 o'clock hour has alienated a lot of its audience. "People don't want to stay up that late to watch it," says Mr. Producer, "and those who are DVR-less are simply screwed. Plus, most likely people without DVR aren't the same people who are willing to watch it on ABC.com either."

Then there's the matter of that timeslot change. Mr. Producer thinks that the series' more casual viewers aren't even aware that the show's air time has changed; while everyone knew that the show was returning, ABC has confused the issue slightly by airing reruns--of last week's first run installment--the following week at 9 pm. In fact, if one were to add the ratings for the encore presentation of "Not in Portland" to the winter premiere ratings, the numbers are actually higher than the ratings for the fall and on par with last season's ratings.

"Perhaps the audience is still there," he suggests, "they are just fragmented due to lack of understanding of how the show has been scheduled. They may even be tuning into the encore because these viewers think its a new episode and turn off the television before they realize there is a new episode following in the 10 pm hour."

Or, again, they're DVR-less and unwilling to stay up until 11 pm to watch the show... a definitely likelihood if we buy into the family viewing theory. Most Americans do go to bed around 10 pm, after all. And, as long as ABC offers the 9 pm viewing option (albeit a week late), some viewers may continue to watch that rather than the first-run episodes at 10 pm.

So, ultimately, what can ABC do at this point to stem the tide of audience erosion? Both Mr. Producer and I agree that ABC should either return Lost to its 9 pm timeslot. Or do something really daring and surprise us all by moving it all the way to 8 pm.

After all, with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse talking about how they want to end the series around episode 100, wouldn't it behoove the network to actually get Lost to Season Five at this point?

Nobody's Watching "Nobody's Watching"... Again

Say it isn't true. After all this time (not to mention brilliantly funny webisodes), could Nobody's Watching actually be dead?

Sadly, it looks like that's the case, despite the Peacock ordering a live episode of Nobody's Watching a few weeks ago and setting the stage for a March launch of the live format, which could have led to a series pickup.

According to an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Tuned In Journal, an NBC source confirmed Nobody's Watching creator and executive producer Bill Lawrence's suspicious that the network wouldn't in fact go forward with the series or the live show, despite the TCA announcement last month.

Lawrence says that contracts for Paul Campbell and Taran Killam--who play the fictional Will and Derek--expire at the end of the month; Lawrence (Scrubs) also said that he would cease making all webisodes/viral videos for the Nobody's Watching site. "If I kept doing it and nothing happens," he told the Post-Gazette, "I'd have to kill myself."

Still, what exactly happened at NBC to turn the tide, AFTER an announcement was made about the show's future? "I'm thinking it was an 11th hour decision to pull the plug, but I am hoping it's not," said Lawrence.

Regardless, a spokeman for NBC has confirmed that the project, in both its live and filmed incarnations, will not be going forward after all.

A sad, sad day and a bitter reminder that, no matter how much fan support you have for a series, there's sometimes a massive disconnect between that fanbase and the network programming execs making decisions about which series are ordered and which are destined for the trash heap.

Nobody's Watching, I had hoped, was destined for greater things than that.

To Bill Lawrence, Neil Goldman, Garrett Donovan, Paul Campbell, and Taran Killam, I'd like to say thanks for the laughs, the awesome emails, and for the memories. I loved the original pilot and the viral videos they'd created for this self-aware comedy experiment.

Nobody might ever get to watch this amazing show on the air (as it should be), but I'm certainly glad that this nobody ever got the chance to tune in.

Televisionary PSA: LA-based Fans of "Veronica Mars," Beware

Sometimes it seems like The-Powers-That-Be are against you, especially if you're a fan of Veronica Mars.

Just a few days after learning that the CW had picked up additional episodes of mystery/drama Veronica Mars (even if it had been for a back seven, rather than nine), I learned (via a tipoff from Televisionary reader Travis) that Los Angeles' CW affiliate, KTLA, would be preempting this week's episode of Veronica Mars to instead air the Clippers vs. Lakers game.

No mention of the switcheroo has appeared on-air so far and Los Angeles-based fans who anxiously watched the previews for this week's episode of Veronica Mars are sadly out of luck. KTLA is shunting this week's episode to Saturday night at 9 pm. (The same goes for Gilmore Girls as well, which is being booted this week to Saturday at 8 pm.) Which means we'll have to wait to see how Veronica reacts to her attack by the Hearst College serial rapist and the rather tongue-in-cheek kidnapping of guest star Patty Hearst.

Whah huh? But isn't this November sweeps? Won't something, you know, important happen on these crucial episodes? Aren't the CW watching Veronica's ratings with eagle-eyed precision?

Exactly. KTLA has done this before. They air NBA Basketball between November and April, I believe, and if sweeps episodes of Veronica or Gilmore Girls get in the way, so be it. Far be it for them to actually warn the fans ahead of time that their beloved shows will be seen by the rest of the country days before they reach the airwaves here in Los Angeles. Sadly, Los Angeles fans of Veronica will remember that that series got preempted more than a few times during its run on UPN...

Rumors are circulating that the chances of a fourth season of Veronica Mars are looking extremely hazy, given the fact that the network opted to order less than the traditional back nine episodes for Season Three. It's extremely imperative that the numbers for this season hold.

So, here is your Public Service Announcement from Televisionary: express your displeasure with KTLA and try to find, um, alternative means of watching show... and be ready to fight back with all your wrath when the CW tries to make it seem as though Veronica Mars didn't reach its projected numbers for sweeps. After all, it didn't end up airing in one of the largest markets when it was supposed to.

Which leads me to wonder: what would Veronica do?

Deja Vu: NBC Cancels "Kidnapped"... Again

Call it the anti-Stockholm Syndrome.

NBC has abducted its serialized kidnapping drama, um, Kidnapped, from its primetime schedule... again.

Despite pulling the struggling freshman series last month and then announcing that it would air its remaining episodes on Saturday nights (and allow the drama to wrap up its storyline), the Peacock has now officially declared the drama dead on arrival and unceremoniously yanked it out of its Saturday night berth.

To date, Kidnapped has aired five episodes in two timeslots. It's unclear whether production will wrap immediately or whether the Sony-based program will finish its 13-episode original order. What is clear is that NBC won't be airing any more episodes on Saturday or any other day of the week, instead choosing to fill the timeslot with repeats of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, beginning this Saturday.

Sad but true. So, if you're one of the 3.7 million paltry viewers who tuned in this past Saturday to see if Knapp would inch closer to solving the mystery of Leopold Cain's kidnapping, you have my sincere apologies. Me, I'm more saddened by the fact that the incandescent Dana Delany keeps getting cast in fantastic series with incredible potential (cough, cough, Pasadena) that end up getting prematurely cancelled.

Should ABC Really Lose "Lost" for 13 Weeks?

I was stunned to learn yesterday that more people tuned in Wednesday night to watch CBS procedural Criminal Minds than ABC's Lost. While 16.10 million viewers caught Mandy Patinkin over on the Eye, a blip less (16.07 million viewers) tuned in to find out exactly what happened to Locke, Eko, and Desmond when the hatch went kablooey. I find that downright troubling, even more worrisome than the fact that we're already halfway through Lost's "fall season."

I should mention that, thanks to the coveted 18-49 demographic, Lost still came out number one for the evening. But the fact that the two series are virtually neck and neck for viewership makes me concerned, given that Lost has seen double-digit percentage declines year-to-year. Serialized dramas as a whole have taken a hit this season with Jericho and Heroes being the only two new series able to find an audience. Meanwhile, NBC is burning off Kidnapped on Saturdays and, yesterday, Fox announced their plans to wrap up Vanished after 13 episodes. So why would ABC put Lost on hiatus for 13 weeks to try out an untested serialized drama, Day Break?

ABC's rationale for cutting the third season of Lost into two chunks was that viewers were frustrated by too many repeats during the season. So ABC decided to air 6 episodes of Lost in the fall with a cliffhanger intended to sate fans' appetites until the drama returns in mid-February. But will the audience come back?

I turned to two other TV professionals -- a producer on a current hit TV series and a studio exec -- for their opinions on the Lost quandary. For the sake of privacy, both will remain anonymous, but we'll call them Mr. Producer and Studio Maven (or Maven for short).

"ABC is in for a rude awakening when it pulls Lost at the end of sweeps," said Mr. Producer. "With audience erosion approaching the double digits, it's suicide to continue with its plan to pull Lost. With its huge tumble from last season -- and an overdose on serialized dramas -- I feel like audiences will continue to flee the show... and possibly flock to time slot competitor, procedural Criminal Minds, which has picked up almost four million viewers since this time last season -- roughly the same amount that has left Lost."

Maven wholeheartedly agreed with Mr. Producer's assessment. "My gut is that it's a VERY bad idea to pull Lost so early in the season," she said. "The fact that the ratings are slipping is alarming, for sure, but if you take it off this early I think you run the risk of a certain percentage of people just not coming back. If people feel like it's work to keep up with when a show is on, they won't watch. True, the double digit percentage drop from last year to this year is worrisome, but it's still holding its own. Pulling it for a new show will not only anger fans (again), but potentially hurt the ratings even more."

Personally, I'd have to agree. Waiting the summer months out for a new episode of Lost was difficult enough, but the show's producers (and studio) were smart enough to unleash The Lost Experience, an online, interactive "experience" outside of the show for addicts to pore over and analyze all summer long. There are no current plans during the 13-week hiatus to launch anything that will keep the show in the forefront of fans' minds during this time... no matter how amazing that fall season cliffhanger is.

So what's the alternative on Wednesdays at 9 pm? ABC's Day Break? Having seen the pilot back in May, I can't say that I am planning to tune into the series. Whether Lost fans plan on watching this instead remains to be seen.

"By subbing in the Taye Diggs Groundhog Day-esque action series Day Break, you are asking viewers to commit to yet another high-concept serialized drama, something that ABC has failed to do with The Nine (and last season's Invasion)," said Mr. Producer. "Viewers may watch Jack Bauer's bad days on 24, but I don't know how many viewers want to watch Taye Diggs relive the same bad day over and over again."

So what does Mr. Producer think of Day Break's chances of success in Lost's timeslot? "Its future ultimately depends on its success and the possible cancellation of The Nine," he said. "If The Nine continues its shoddy run, and Day Break is able to hold onto Lost's numbers [in the timeslot], I'm thinking we will see Day Break shift into The Nine's slot come January... and be paired up with an early returning Lost."

On the other hand, Maven had a completely different take on how ABC should proceed, regardless of how well Day Break does. "With the poor ratings of Six Degrees, I don't see why ABC doesn't just keep Lost where it is and stick Day Break in Six Degrees' spot, or if they really want to take a risk... put Lost on Thursday at 10, after Grey's, opposite the rejuvenated ER," she offered.

I definitely agree with Maven and think that the one-two punch of Grey's Anatomy leading into Lost could be just the thing to boost the (relatively) sagging ratings of Lost and solidify Thursday night as belonging to ABC (they also air breakout hit Ugly Betty on the same night). Obviously, people are switching over to NBC's ER because they'd rather watch that than freshman series Shark or Six Degrees.

As for ER, NBC had originally intended to put that series on hiatus and air mid-season drama The Black Donnellys for 13 weeks, but last week the Peacock reconsidered its position and will instead leave the medical drama where it is and may even increase its episode count to 25. Pretty ironic for a series that many insiders had pegged was in its penultimate season.

Something tells me ABC would be wise to follow suit. Otherwise, Lost's audience may just up and disappear off the radar like a certain Oceanic flight.

CBS Yanks "Smith"

In an unexpected move, CBS has stolen crime drama Smith right off of its primetime schedule.

Smith, which features an all-star dream cast including Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen, Amy Smart, Simon Baker, and Jonny Lee Miller, hadn't exactly caught on in the ratings like gangbusters, but it's surprising that CBS would pull the beleaguered show rather than test it in a less competitive timeslot.

While CBS has yet to use the C-word (that would be cancelled, folks), it does seem like the jig is up for Smith's team of thieves.

The news comes on the heels of NBC's announcement that it would not be ordering the back nine episodes of drama Kidnapped and would shift the series, now only 13 episodes total, to the Saturday night graveyard shift.

Meanwhile, the odds are that one of these series will be the next to get the axe: CW's Runway, ABC's Six Degrees, and CBS' The Class. Start placing your bets as to which will be next...

Televisionary Rant: "MI:5" (a.k.a. "Spooks") Vanishes Right Off A&E Schedule

I was all excited to watch MI-5 tonight. While it's on at 11 pm and, though preceded by two and a half hours of Doctor Who tonight, I couldn't wait to catch up on those daring Brit spies and whatever dastardly plot they're foiling this week. Hell, I even wrote about the espionage drama this morning.

And then A&E had to go and mess up all of my carefully laid TiVo plans. The cabler, better known for reality fare like Dog the Bounty Hunter and Criss Angel, Mindfreak than top-notch quality programming from across the pond, has decided in its infinite wisdom to pull tonight's episode of MI-5--and all subsequent episodes--and burn off the fourth series on Saturday, October 21st, airing the remaining episodes (um, that would be all of them other than the two-part premiere) in a single eight-hour block during the day.

Um, wow. Really, thanks, A&E, for depriving the American audience of a quality drama like MI-5 and relegating it to burn-off status on a weekend a few weeks from now. A move like that really shows a healthy appreciation for your audience. Fortunately, there's absolutely nothing on this network that I'll ever plan on watching.