The Nine is put on hold.

After a sluggish start and poor ratings, ABC announced that The Nine will go on hiatus effective immediately. This week's episode will be replaced by a special edition of 20/20. For more on this story, read this.

I can't say that I'm surprised. For one, ABC has been quick on the trigger this season to pull shows that just aren't working, and The Nine is definitely one of those shows. My recommendation would be to speed up the pace of each episode so that we learn more and more about the robbery and can begin to put together the pieces of what happened during those 52 hours inside the bank. They need to pull back from delving too deeply into the personal lives of the characters beyond their connections to the bank robbery. For example, last week's episode was dominated by Franny's confrontation of her long-lost mother and the sudden reappearance of Nick's ex-wife - two storylines that were completely unnecessary and added nothing to the storyline. But they did a better job of finally revealing the mystery of discord between soon-to-be-parents Jeremy and Lizzie. Perhaps there will be some changes made when, and if, the show returns. I hear that when Six Degrees returns from it's hiatus in January, the show will focus on just two: Whitney (Bridget Moynahan) and Steven (Campbell Scott). Great...the two least interesting characters on the show. Stay tuned....