The network giveth and the network taketh away.

Even though the Chase series performed poorly right from the start, NBC gave the TV show a full season order of 22 episodes. Now, the peacock network has trimmed back that order to just 18 installments.

On the positive side, NBC is moving Chase out of the Mondays at 10pm timeslot. It’ll no longer have to battle against Castle and the new Hawaii Five-0. Unfortunately, beginning January 12th, it’ll be airing in a far more competitive timeslot. Chase is moving to Wednesdays at 9pm where it’ll do battle with American Idol.

The most recent episode of Chase garnered a 1.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 6.03 million total viewers. That’s the second significant increase in two weeks but the series is still doing terribly and is consistently in a distant third place for the timeslot.

Chase has averaged a 1.6 rating for the season, just slightly better than now-cancelled Undercovers. Unless there’s a significant turnaround, it’s pretty clear that Chase will be cancelled at the end of the season.

What do you think? Does Chase still have a chance to be renewed for season two or is it already doomed to be cancelled?

Image courtesy NBC.