ABC’s ‘Eastwick’ gets the broom while ‘The Forgotten’ is remembered

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ABC has decided not to order additional episodes of its new Wednesday-night drama ‘Eastwick,’ which is about as close as a network gets to saying it’s canceling a show these days.

While much of ABC’s Wednesday night has been a pleasant surprise with ‘The Middle,’ ‘Modern Family’ and ‘Cougar Town’ all getting full-season pickups, ‘Eastwick’ has been pulling in Jay Leno-like numbers at 10 p.m., often averaging less than 5 million viewers. The show, which stars Rebecca Romijn and Lindsey Price, is based on the John Updike book. While it spawned a moderately successful movie, this is the third time an attempt to make a TV series based on the book has fallen short.

The other Wednesday night ABC show whose fate is up in the air is the 8 p.m. sitcom ‘Hank,’ starring Kelsey Grammer. ‘Hank’ has also been an under-performer and will likely not have any additional episodes ordered.

ABC did give its Tuesday freshman drama ‘The Forgotten’ some good news and ordered five more episodes. That’s a network’s way of saying we sort of like you, but we’re not sure how much.

[Updated Tues. 1:00 p.m.: An earlier version of this post incorrectly referred to ABC’s ‘Eastwick’ as ‘The Witches of Eastwick.’ The post has been updated to reflect the change.]

-- Joe Flint