Arrested Development canceled

Portia de Rossi and her cast mates on Fox's ratings-challenged Arrested Development are headed for the exit after Fox cut the third-season order on the Emmy-winning comedy to 13 episodes. The series won a devoted cult following as well as kudos from critics but had trouble finding a larger audience. Also getting the ax at Fox is Arrested's companion on Monday, the freshman comedy Kitchen Confidential, whose order will not be extended beyond the initial 13 episodes.

The demise of Arrested comes just as the acclaimed comedy came back this week after a hiatus to make room for Fox's baseball coverage. The two back-to-back episodes averaged a paltry 4 million viewers Monday, sending Fox to fifth place in the 8 p.m. hour and putting a dent on the ratings of its lead-out, the rookie drama Prison Break.

There is a possibility that the show will be shopped around, but its high cost is expected to be prohibitive for a cable network.

Fox said Thursday that it will pull Arrested Development and Kitchen Confidential off the schedule for the remaining three Mondays of the November sweep, replacing them with a rerun of the previous episode of Prison Break leading into an original episode of the serialized drama.

Arrested and Kitchen are set to return to their time slots with original episodes December 5, following the fall finale of Prison Break on November 28. (Reuters, Hollywood Reporter)