TVSquad

Sometimes a short-lived show will vanish from the schedule and you'll have to wait until the DVD comes out (maybe). Other shows show up on some cable network and are run for a while but then go away forever. These three shows were so short-lived you didn't think you'd see them anywhere ever again. But DirecTV has other ideas.

The company is going to start showing three short-lived shows again: ABC's Eyes and The Nine and CBS' Smith. Specifically, they've made a deal with Warner Brothers to show the three shows on their 101 Network and DirecTV on Demand. They'll be shown in HD, unedited, and episodes you've never seen before will be part of the package too (Eyes has seven unseen episodes, while The Nine and Smith each have four).

... Five canceled shows.

Isn't it really sad when a TV show is canceled? It's like a family pet has died. You're not going to see these characters anymore, you're not going to find out what happened to them, and now you have to learn to like a whole new show and a new set of characters. And if the show replaced your favorite canceled show, you probably won't even watch. I still remember when Walker, Texas Ranger replaced Raven on CBS in the early 90s. I never forgave Chuck Norris for doing that and couldn't even watch his show, even though both shows were about heroes who kicked people with their feet.

2007 brought many cancellations to fans. Many cancellations we saw coming, many we didn't care about at all, and some truly hurt us. After the jump are the top five cancellations of the year. The ones that hit us the most and we talked about the most. Air your cancellation grievance in the comments below and at your Festivus party.

ABC has yanked The Knights of Prosperity and The Nine off its schedule... again. Both series performed poorly in the ratings last season and were officially canceled in the spring. But, ABC was taking the opportunity to burn off the final episodes during this summer. Apparently even that wasn't garnering enough ratings for the network, because they've been replaced by reruns of According to Jim and NASCAR in Primetime.

There are still four episodes of The Nine that have not aired and two episodes of Knights that never aired. No word from ABC on whether they will ever see the light of day, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

• At 7:30, ESPN2 has coverage of the Rogers Cup tennis tournament.
• At 8, CBS has a new Power of 10.
• FOX has a new So You Think You Can Dance at 8, then a new Don't Forget The Lyrics.
• BBC America has a new What's Eating Victoria Beckham at 8.
• At 8:30, ABC has anew Knights of Prosperity (there's another new episode at 9:30).
• At 9, NBC has a new Last Comic Standing, then a new Dateline.
• TBS has two new episodes of Tyler Perry's House of Payne starting at 9.
• Discovery has a new Mythbusters at 9, followed by a new Cash Cab.
• Travel Channel has a new World Poker Tour at 9.
• At 10, ABC has a new episode of The Nine.
• There's a new Rescue Me on FX at 10.
• Bravo has a new Top Chef at 10.
• Sci-Fi has a new Mind Control with Derren Brown at 10.
• Also at 10: Food Network has a new Dinner: Impossible.

Check your local TV listings for more.

Poor Tim Daly. Ever since Wings ended back in 1997 he hasn't had much luck in the television world. Sure, he's had a number of successful guest appearances, and he did have a good run as the voice of Clark Kent/Superman on the WB's Superman: The Animated Series, but those don't really count. Where his luck has been failing is on series where he has had a leading role.

It's not like the shows themselves were bad. Quite the contrary, all three shows that Daly starred in were decent critical successes. In addition, Tim himself was credited by professional and fan alike as having a strong performance in all these shows. The problem was either the fan base wasn't strong enough to keep the shows on the air or the networks just decided they had a more successful show to fill the spot.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that the already large cast of Heroes is balooning ballooning toward ginormous -- which is now officially a word, FYI. NBC confirmed that Jessica Collins, formerly of ABC's The Nine, will be playing Sophie, a new super-powered female.

The article describes her as a mysterious woman who works at the organization tracking all the heroes, which I assume is Primatech Paper Company -- unless there is a new organization to be introduced.

In addition to Collins, Dania Ramirez, Dana Davis, David Anders, and Lyndsy Fonseca are all expected to join the cast in the second season.

• At 8, FOX has a new So You Think You Can Dance, then a new Don't Forget The Lyrics.
• BBC America has a new Footballer's Wives at 8.
• TCM has the movie A Place in the Sun at 8.
• At 9, ABC has a new American Inventor, then a new episode of The Nine (yes, The Nine!).
• NBC has a new Last Comic Standing at 9, followed by a new Dateline.
• CNBC has a new Fast Money MBA Challenge at 9.
• There are two new episodes of Tyler Perry's House of Payne starting at 9 on TBS.
• History Channel has a new Modern Marvels at 9.
• ESPN2 has a new installment of The Bronx is Burning at 9.
• Also at 9: The Travel Channel has a new World Poker Tour.
• At 10, FX has a new Rescue Me.
• If you get NESN in your area, Sox Appeal, the new Red Sox dating show from the makers of Queer Eye, debuts at 10 (or after the Sox/Orioles game).
• Remember chef Rocco DiSpirito from The Restaurant? He's on tonight's new Top Chef, on Bravo at 10.

Check your local TV listings for more.

We TV Critics are dead on our feet now that we're in the last two days of a near-three week press tour at the Beverly Hilton, but that hasn't stopped us from getting dish from actors and producers here to hawk their fall ABC series.

On stage to promote Cashmere Mafia (a series about four women living life in New York City) creator Darren Star was asked about his other program about four women that call the Big Apple home. Star says: "There's a [film] script. It's in the form of pre-production."

Fans of ABC's canceled-too-soon series The Nine will be happy to know that the six unaired episodes of the series will see the light of the small screen this summer.

The series, starring actors such as Tim Daly, Chi McBride, John, Billingsley, and Kim Raver, will return to ABC in its old 10 p.m. ET on Wednesdays timeslot starting August 1.

(S01E03) I don't know that any of us can ever really understand the machinations that go into making the network schedule. After watching the first three episodes of Traveler though, I'm left scratching my head wondering just what it was that kept this one tucked away for so long. I'll give in where The Nine is concerned, because the pilot was very good. But how this one got passed over for Six Degrees, Men In Trees, and the collection of little sit-coms that couldn't is beyond me.

After spending a good deal of my time watching Lost, listening to the official podcast and reading anything I can get my hands on about the show, I feel like my relationship with the show has gotten a little strained.

1. At the beginning, you will blow off your friends to be together.
During the first season of Lost, I couldn't get enough. I cleared Wednesday nights on my schedule and if I had to TiVo it, I avoided anyone I knew who watched it. I didn't want them spoiling anything for me. My relationship with Lost was special.

There has been an awful lot of talk about CBS canceling Jericho. Over at Observer-reporter.com, they've taken a hard line and decided the fault lays squarely at the feet of the network itself.

Jericho was one of the few new dramas that finished out the season. Heavy duty serials like The Nine, Vanished and Kidnapped were all cut short before reaching their finale. I, myself, was a fan of Jericho, but even I knew it's chances of renewal were slim. Personally, I feel that if the show had revealed some of it's secrets a little earlier, more viewers may have stuck around.

When the new fall schedules were announced last year, one of the shows that I was most looking forward to, ABC's mystery-drama Traveler, wasn't on the schedule. Which was sort of surprising since it got a lot of positive buzz in the upfront presentation that the network gave. And then we had all of the serialized dramas failing badly (The Nine, Smith, Daybreak, etc) and it seemed like Traveler would never premiere.

But ABC has announced that Traveler will indeed make it's debut on May 30, at 10pm. The number of episodes has been trimmed a little, and it looks like it's going to be one of those shows that will have a definite end, maybe like a long miniseries, so viewers won't feel cheated. Which is good news for TV fans these days, I guess.

For those are you who worry a lot and get all nervous, you might want to skip this story.

Variety has a list of the TV shows that are "on the bubble," the ones that are teetering on the edge of cancellation and might not make it to fall '07. The list includes a few shows that I thought were actually doing well, and that scares me a bit (and ticks me off).

ABC: The Nine and Knights of Prosperity are probably gone, and What About Brian is on the edge too, despite getting a second life a few months ago.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, actor Tim Daly is poised to take a leading role in that spinoff to Grey's Anatomy that everyone is all hyped up about. He'll guest star in a two-hour episode that is meant to be the launching point for the spinoff. His character is described as "handsome, sincere, like a McDreamy." He'll have some competition for Resident Hunk because Taye Diggs has already signed on to the spinoff.

Series creator Shonda Rhimes is reportedly planning a spinoff to Grey's Anatomy, starring Kate Walsh, whose character Addison Shepherd is about to leave Seattle Grace Hospital. The spingboard episode is set to air in May.

Paul Adelstein, formerly of Prison Break, is also set to co-star in the two-hour episode though his role is not clear. There will also be a female psychiatrist and a female fertility specialist in the springboard episode and (presumably) the spinoff.