Every episode is like a gift from comedy heaven, I swear.

"Why don't you just have some sex right now?"

It's not looking good for "Arrested Development""Arrested Development" or frosh laffer "Kitchen Confidential."
Fox has cut back its episode order on the critically-admired "Arrested" to just 13 segs, down from 22. Producers of "Kitchen," meanwhile, have been told the show won't be getting a full-season pickup.

More worrisome: Fox is pulling both shows from the schedule, effective immediately. "Arrested" returned from a month-long hiatus this week, while "Kitchen""Kitchen" was slated to return Monday.

Instead of the two laffers, Fox will air repeats of drama "Prison Break" in the 8-9 p.m. Monday slot for the rest of the November sweeps. It's presumed "Arrested" and "Kitchen" will return to finish out the remainder of their runs in December. Come January, net has long planned to move "House" into the Monday slot.

Fox wasn't commenting Thursday morning, and for now, nobody's using the word "cancellation." But in the case of "Arrested," the handwriting appears to be on the wall.

While numbers for "Arrested" were underwhelming this week, it's worth noting that a number of returning laffers -- including Fox's "Stacked" -- aren't doing much better.

Two words: American Idol.



Baaah... it's hopeless.

I'm gonna start writing a eulogy for the funniest show only a handful watched.

(wait, did they ever air an AD episode after Idol? Or am I hallucinating?)

Yep, they did. It didn't do very well (aka retained about 50-60% of Idol's audience).

So, this gives us just 53 episodes to enjoy of this show. Sad. Maybe I'll settle for less now and watch the 200+ episodes of Everybody LOVES RAYMOND!!!!!!!

50-60 percent is still better than say, Stacked's retention. From 25 million Idol to 11.5 million Stacked. Outrageous.

Actually, I think it lost 60% of its audience, from 24M to 9.5M. Pretty bad. And it was a two-parter with Julia-Louis Dreyfuss!

So, so, sad.

AD would fit perfectly on HBO.

But, what value does AD have to any other network? It's easy to say that if AD got the same numbers on HBO, it would be a big hit, but it probably just do a million viewers. For a network to pick a cancelled show up, it has to have a really good reason, and I don't think there is.

Well if NBC picked it up then they would have a 2 hour comedy block to put on Tuesdays. And that could draw major ratings from those deciding to watch it all.

For all you fans that need to assuage your AD needs whilst rumors of cancellation fly, tune into The Office.

It's no AD, but it's up there. And will hopefully tide you over.

For all you fans that need to assuage your AD needs whilst rumors of cancellation fly, tune into The Office.

It's no AD, but it's up there. And will hopefully tide you over.

Or you could all watch My Name Is Earl! The show critics are saying is "much, much better than Arrested Development!" and "far, far funnier than The Office!".