the forgotten: Not Cancelled (yet), ABC Orders Five More Episodes

The new ABC series called the forgotten has received a bit of good news. The network has decided to order five more installments. Does this mean that it won’t be cancelled?

Starring Christian Slater, the forgotten follows a group of civilians who work together to find missing persons once the police have reached a dead end. Aside from Slater, the series features the talents of Michelle Borth, Heather Stephens, Bob Stephenson, Rochelle Aytes, Anthony Carrigan, Judith Hoag, and Lily Rains.

Debuting on September 22nd, the forgotten got off to a slow start with just a 2.6 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 9.54 million total viewers. It lost a large percentage of the Dancing with the Stars lead-in audience and 12% of viewers tuned in before the hour was done.

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The following week, viewership dropped to a 2.0 in the demo and 7.72 million. While overall viewership fluctuated in later weeks, the demo numbers stayed at the same disappointing level.

In a somewhat surprising move, ABC has decided to order five additional installments. Of the news, co-executive producer KristieAnne Reedd tweeted, “Very excited about the additional order of episodes for the forgotten.”

While this may seem like the network has faith in the series, it’s more likely an indication of other scheduling challenges caused by things like the cancellation of Eastwick.

Unless the forgotten’s ratings turn around, it’s difficult to imagine that ABC will order any more or invest in a second season.

What do you think? Can the forgotten be saved or is it living on borrowed time?