Fox Shelves ''Til Death,' Shuffles 'Brothers'

What is the deal with Fox and little-loved sitcom 'Til Death? By all measures, this show should have been canceled years ago: It's low-rated and poorly reviewed; it's had major cast overhauls numerous times; it's switched behind-the-scenes teams just as often; it's been bounced around all over the schedule and pulled for months at a time. None of these measures has brought any degree of success, but Fox just keeps on ordering more episodes. Last season the network was in the strange position of pulling the show off the air while ordering more episodes. It stayed off the schedule so long that many of those third-season episodes never aired and probably never will.

Now only a few episodes into the once-again-retooled fourth season, 'Til Death has been benched yet again, its Friday time slot taken over by repeats of House, with no plans for it to return. Maybe this time Fox will finally let things go. Death's Friday-night companion, the new sitcom Brothers, has also been yanked to make way for more House, but Brothers at least will get a burn-off on Sundays at 7 p.m. EST starting November 8, with back-to-back episodes airing some weeks. That time slot, and the doubling up, probably indicates that the show will end after its original set of episodes, but at least they'll make it on the air.

Photo courtesy of Fox