Lone Star, the new FOX drama about a con man in Texas, has been given the death penalty. After two low-rated episodes, FOX has axed the critical darling and will replace it with new episodes of Lie to Me starting this Monday, October 4, at 9pm.

The first cancellation of the season can come as no surprise to anyone who followed the ratings. After picking up just 4.1 million viewers for the premiere (losing more than half its House lead-in), the second episode dipped even more to 3.8 million.

It didn’t help that the show is on FOX, a network that has no problem canceling a show right away. Very few of you will probably remember Anchorwoman, a reality series FOX aired in the summer of 2007 that was literally canceled the day after it premiered. In 2007 FOX canceled the reality series Nashville after two episodes and in 2008 the network canceled the comedy Do Not Disturb after just three episodes.

The hole opens the early return of Lie to Me for its third season. The show was originally scheduled to air Wednesdays at 9pm following Hell’s Kitchen on November 10 after baseball season ended. At this point it’s still a mystery what FOX will do with that opening in November.

With Lone Star dead, we can try to predict what will be the second casualty of the new season. ABC’s The Whole Truth is a likely candidate after a bad start and NBC’s Outlaw is bleeding on Friday nights. One of those is the most likely next victim.

For the fans of Lone Star, try not to fear. It’s star, James Wolk, is charming and handsome enough to easily land another role. I have no doubt that this won’t be the last we see of him.

(Image courtesy of FOX)

John Kubicek

Senior Writer, BuddyTV

John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire DiariesSupernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.