First There Was 'Nine,' and Then None

John Stossel and "20/20" will fill in for "The Nine." (Stephen Chernin - AP)

ABC came in under cover of the holiday weekend to yank from its schedule the serialized drama "The Nine," about a bunch of people who survived a bungled bank stickup in which they were held hostage for 52 hours.

"Please note 'The Nine' is on hiatus and will return later in the season," ABC told the Reporters Who Cover Television in an e-mail issued Saturday when, presumably, most of them did not see it.

"The Nine" has been replaced by a "20/20" broadcast, "Cheap in America," in which John Stossel will report, just in time for the holidays, whether liberals give more money to charity than conservatives do.

After this week, the Wednesday time slot will be filled by a five-part series called "Primetime: Basic Instinct," in which ABC News will explore whether you can trust your basic instincts to find an unknown person, do the right thing in life-and-death situations, get rich, search for a missing person and other hypotheticals.

Press loved "The Nine"; viewers, not so much. With a "Lost" lead-in, "The Nine" was averaging just under 9 million viewers. Take away "Lost," and "The Nine" last week plunged to an audience of only 4 million viewers on the night before Thanksgiving.

Which, we'd like to mention here, is just slightly smaller than the audience that same night for Madonna's "Confessions Tour" concert minus the crucifixion song-and-dance number.

Even so, ABC decided it had no choice but to pull "The Nine" from the lineup.

In fact, the time period, hailed at the start of the season as one of the great serialized-drama showdowns, between "The Nine" and NBC's "Kidnapped," is now a face-off time slot for NBC's "Dateline" vs. "Primetime."

Notice how, what with one serialized drama after another biting the dust, newsmagazines have become "break glass in case of emergency" programs. That's because they can be slapped into a slot quickly without a lot of promotion, and they're cost effective.

Like that other shelved ABC serialized drama, "Six Degrees," "The Nine" had not received an order for additional episodes beyond its original 13.

Meanwhile, CBS's Wednesday 10 p.m. drama, "CSI: NY," continues to plug along nicely, this season averaging just under 17 million viewers, compared with about 15 million at this point last season.