By Lisa de Moraes
Friday, April 27, 2007

When word got out that Fox had yanked its new drama "Drive," a sort of pun madness came over The Reporters Who Cover Television:

Fox has impounded "Drive," steering the show off the network highway after four episodes.

It's been a short "Drive" for Fox's midseason drama.

"Drive" has run out of gas.

The heavily promoted car-race drama has run into a brick wall.

Fox has decided that the auto-friendly "Drive" is a lemon.

The network has taken "Drive" to the impound lot and crunched its already reduced order into a little cube.

Fox has taken the offramp and exited "Drive."

Those last five were all from the same article, on the Web site Zap2it.com, to which was added, "We're sorry, but shows named 'Drive' don't get pulled very often and there are just so many available puns."

Anyway, despite heavy pre-launch promotion to the "American Idol" audience, "Drive" crashed and burned -- oh, sorry -- after just four episodes, averaging only about 5.6 million viewers. It never really had a chance, having clocked a lousy premiere audience of just 6 million.

Fox has replaced "Drive" in its Monday time slot with "House" repeats.

The early cancellation continues executive producer Tim Minear's track record of critically heralded, short-lived series at the network. That list includes "Standoff," "Wonderfalls," "The Inside" and "Firefly."

"Drive," about a disparate bunch of people all competing in a secret, illegal, cross-country car race, only had to get through six episodes to complete its first-season order. Alas, only four episodes aired before it got yanked.

Back in January, at Winter TV Press Tour 2007, one of TRWCT asked Minear, "If the race is a secret, how come people from all walks of life know about it?"

"Well, it's a little bit like my last three shows on Fox," Minear responded. "People hear rumors, and then eventually they either download them or get the DVDs."

During that press tour, Fox entertainment chief Peter Liguori referred to Minear as the "Rocky Balboa of Fox producers and show creators." (He also said Fox suits had "every faith that this is going to be a top show for us," which would seem to be accurate, given the investment of "American Idol" promotion time toward launching the series.) Minear was asked about Liguori's description of him and whether he wouldn't rather be known as the hitmaker.

"Well, I can tell you this, just between you and me: Some days the $2 million is hardly worth it," he responded.