For the third week in a row, FOX has pulled yet another of its new shows from the airwaves. Vanished is missing in action. Is it gone for good? Will fans be left hanging?
Vanished debuted on Monday, August 21, 2006 and the premise went like this: Sara Collins (Joanne Kelly), the beautiful young wife of prominent Georgia Senator Jeffrey Collins (John Allen Nelson), mysteriously vanishes. As the family and the FBI search for her, a myriad of secrets begin to unfold, nothing is as it seems, and most everyone becomes a suspect. The ongoing drama also starred Gale Harold (whose character was killed in episode eight), Rebecca Gayheart, Ming-Na, John Patrick Amedori and Christopher Egan.
The series debuted to approximately 6 million households (a 5.6 rating), trounced by repeats on competing network ABC. Vanished was shown for seven episodes on Monday nights. Like many FOX shows, Vanished’s schedule was then interrupted (never good news for a serial drama) by Fox airing games of the World Series. Fox reworked their schedule in the interim and moved Vanished to Friday nights. It returned on November 3rd and two episodes have aired in that timeslot.
The last episode on November 10th delivered its lowest ratings to date (less than 4.1 million households), putting it in fourth place for the night. It’s no surprise that this has caused Fox to pull Vanished for the remainder of November sweeps (the month when audience numbers determine how much a network can charge for advertising). Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy takes Vanished’s place on November 17th while the previously scheduled Bruce Almighty movie will fill the slot on November 24.
Though FOX hasn’t said that Vanished is officially cancelled as yet, its days are certainly numbered. The ratings are really low and aren’t getting better. In fact, USA Today ran an article in October reporting that Vanished producers had been told to wrap up the storyline by December.
Vanished is officially scheduled to return on Friday, December 1st (after sweeps have ended) at 8pm. But for how long? Its probable that Fox is just biding its time until the return of its powerhouse shows American Idol and 24 in early 2007. Hopefully, fans will get to see the Sara Collins mystery resolved before that happens. 
This show was and is excellent Fox needs to keep its commiments and work around the Sports. When a show starts at least complete it before cancelling it. Fox makes it very difficult for people to commit to a weekly show when they are always putting their good shows off for something that isn’t quite as good and only airs 1 time.
It was really annoying, I quite enjoyed vanished. Fair enough that they pulled it because of ratings but at least they can let us know what the story was going to be, put some kind of script up on the net somewhere just to give us all peace of mind. The producers must know where it was going so even if its not being finished at least they can tell us.
just finished watching 13 episodes of vanished cant believe we wont see the end i
m gutted. sharon stoke on trent 26/08/07
I can not express my utter, utter shock when I found out that the last 3-4 episodes would not be shown. I live in London, England (so we are probably way behind in our screening – Agent Kelton has just been shot dead!); anyway, I can not stop raving on about how bloody good this show is – we have nothing of this calibre of raw, edge of your seat drama and what keeps me going is that I will find out why the senators wife was abducted and how all the sub plots tie in with this – but… Read more »
I think FOX has got it worng or this world IS going too “reality TV”. I think instead of a “FOX Reality” station they should have a “Cancelled shows on FOX that didn’t suck and were replaced by stupid reality shows” station I would watch it. Who’s with me ?
The vanished show cancelled even before the first series is finished.That sounds very strange.I guess i will have to buy the series on dvd when it comes out to see the remaining episodes
Typical of Fox. No wonder they are fighting for the 5th spot in ratings (yeah I’d say PBS is better them them), along with those other “joke” networks that changed their names (UPN and The WB: now My Network TV and The New CW?!?!). Anyway, look at their history. It says it all: Tru Calling gone! Point Pleasant gone! Fantastic, bizarre at times, but very unique story lines. If it ain’t all warm and fuzzy, don’t even start to watch a FOX show. Cuz it will just get the boot by the higher ups, who just don’t get it. If… Read more »
I can’t believe they pulled the show, I loved it and really looked forward to it, even though it was aired at 11.30pm in Australia – can you believe that! I tried to log on and view it on-line but that’s not available to Australia – what the!!!!! No happy. Why don’t they at least release it on DVD then I could buy it and watch the whole series through to the conclusion instead of being left hanging – that just sucks!
Has anyone seen the last episodes on FOX My Space as streaming video? Do you if it has an end there. The last episode I have seen is 13.
Australian Viewer…I would think no matter how few people were supposed to have been watching this programm there is still some obligation to Fox to finish the series. I was enjoying the series until it VANISHED…
I have been watching this from beginning in Australia – up to reunite with boyfriend – is there going to be more?