Mind Games: Cancelled by ABC, Celebrity Wife Swap to Come

Christian Slater can’t seem to catch a break when it comes to television. ABC has cancelled his low-rated Mind Games TV series. Only five of the 13 episodes have aired. No word on what will become of the rest.

Mind Games follows a pair of brothers (Slater and Steve Zahn) who use psychological manipulation to solve problems and to make people’s dreams come true. The rest of the cast includes Megalyn Echikunwoke, Wynn Everett, Gregory Marcel, Cedric Sanders, and Jaime Ray Newman.

Replacing Killer Women, Mind Games debuted in late February to a disappointing 1.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 3.58 million total viewers. As bad as that was, the second episode performed even wors, dropping nearly 40% in the demo. The numbers perked up a little after that but were overall still terrible.

For the immediate future, ABC will air reruns of Sunday night drama Resurrection. That show started strong but has been losing significant numbers of viewers each week and could use added exposure.

Starting April 15th, the third season of Celebrity Wife Swap will take over the Tuesdays at 10pm timeslot. The network has 13 episodes.

Mind Games marks the third disappointment for ABC in the later Tuesday night slot. Lucky 7 was pulled after two installments and Killer Women was dropped after six. The network cancelled Body of Proof last season due to low ratings but they now look nearly stellar in comparison.

What do you think? Do you think ABC should have cancelled Mind Games or did they wait too long? Why do you think it bombed?