ABC pulls "Karen Sisco" off its schedule

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Monday, November 17th, 2003

Karen Sisco's off the beat at ABC.

Sisco, based on the J.Lo drama Out of Sight, will return to active duty in March. While critically acclaimed, the sassy U.S. marshal series couldn't hack it opposite NBC's veteran cop drama Law & Order on Wednesday nights.

"We love this show, but it has become increasingly obvious that it's not working on Wednesday nights," said Alphabet prez Susan Lyne in a statement released Friday.

"Rather than give up, we're going to complete production on the remaining episodes, and aggressively relaunch the series this March in a new time period. We're hopeful that this course of action will result in the show becoming as popular with viewers as it is with critics and ABC executives," added Lyne.

Seven episodes have aired to date, which leaves six for spring.

Executive-produced by Danny DeVito, among others, the series stars Spy Kids' Carla Gugino as the feisty U.S. marshal who busts bad guys on Miami's Gold Coast. Lopez played the titular role in Steven Soderbergh's 1998 feature opposite George Clooney.

While Sisco is on hiatus, ABC will use the 10 p.m. slot to bow its latest installment of fame-seeking saboteurs on Celebrity Mole January 14. Say what you will Kathy Griffin, but the first season was a bona-fide hit for ABC, ranking as the fourth highest-rated series of its 2002-03 season.

Participants this time around include Hanging With Mr. Cooper's Mark Curry, first season vets Corbin Bernsen and Stephen Baldwin, Growing Pain's Tracy Gold, The Cosby Show's Keisha Knight Pulliam, model Angie Everhart, talk show host Ananda Lewis, and former NBC superstar Dennis Rodman. Ahmad Rashad will return to host.

After the Mole's seven-week run, ABC has reserved the Wednesday night slot for the 15-hour series Kingdom Hospital from horror master Stephen King.

Tag-teaming with Celebrity Mole on January 14 is the newest installment of The Bachelorette. The net recently struck gold, wedding-band style, with the dating series--Bachelorette Trista Rehn and Ryan Sutter will marry in a televised ceremony on December 10--and undoubtedly hopes to get lucky again.

In the meantime, the network has a slate of TV specials to fill the hole left by Sisco's shelving. On November 26, the net will run an original beauty-is-pain episode of Extreme Makeover. The following week it launches the pilot episode of its domestic overhaul spinoff Extreme Makeover: the Home Edition, hosted by Trading Spaces' Ty Pennington.

No word on what the net plans to air during the holidays.

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