No pickups for 'Daisies,' 'Money' and 'Stone'

ABC has decided against picking up "Pushing Daisies," "Dirty Sexy Money" and "Eli Stone" for full-season orders. 

Producers of the shows are being told that ABC has elected not to order additional hours beyond the original 13-episode commitments.

Actively avoiding the c-word, the network left the door open for ordering more episodes at a future date, though that is considered improbable. The trio are still on the schedule for next week. Going into the holidays, their ratings are unlikely to dramatically improve enough to reverse the decision.

"Money" and "Stone" are still in production (on their 12th and 13th episodes, respectively) and will finish shooting their current order.

Bryan Fuller, creator of the critically acclaimed "Daisies," said he hasn't yet been directly informed of ABC's verdict, but has been been playing phone tag with the network's entertainment president.

"I assumed that's what [the call] was about," he wrote. "I can't help but feel immense pride when it comes to 'Pushing Daisies.' I'm grateful TO everyone and FOR everyone who brought the show to life and for the very loyal audience that embraced us.  If we are indeed dead on ABC, we now have to convince DC Comics to let us tell the rest of the  season's story lines out in comic book form and convince Warner Bros. features to let 'Pushing Daisies' live again as a movie."

All the shows were in their second season, with "Daisies" and "Money" having been disrupted by the writers strike last year and "Stone" having launched in midseason earlier this year. "Daisies" averaged 6.4 million viewers and a 2.3 adult demo rating. "Money" averaged 6.6 million and a 2.3. "Stone" averaged 7.9 million and a 2.1. On Wednesday night, "Daisies" and "Money" hit series-low ratings, and "Stone" sank to match its series low on Tuesday. 

UPDATE: ABC books "Scrubs" for midseason, makes "Life on Mars"-after-"Lost" and "Practice"-after-"Grey's plan official.

UPDATE II: Fuller got Steve McPherson on the phone and the ABC executive said...

UPDATE III: ABC orders four more episodes of "Life on Mars"

>> Updated: Fall TV survival status report