Ratings closed the 'Book'

Despite the fact that he declared himself a fan, he hesitated last spring and failed to order the show after producing the pilot. It wasn't until months later that he gave the go-ahead, and that was only for six episodes.

Then he buried it on Fridays, a night where NBC has struggled mightily to attract any kind of an audience.

"Daniel" was set up to fail.

The least NBC could have done was make those six episodes available to viewers. It was particularly discourteous to show previews from Episode 5 at the end of Episode 4 — then never show Episode 5. Or 6.

Hey, NBC owns a bunch of cable networks. They ought to air all six episodes — or at least the last two — on Bravo or something.

ONE E-MAILER SUGGESTED that I was "wrong" when I gave "The Book of Daniel" a good review — that the quick cancellation proved the show was bad.

Given that a review is just one person's opinion, I disagree. Just as I would disagree that someone who didn't like the show was wrong. (Unless, of course, they hadn't watched it.)

And, quite frankly, ratings are not an indicator of quality. There are really good shows that fail in the ratings and get canceled every year.

Conversely, if ratings success is an indicator of high quality, then shows ranging from "Fear Factor" to "Jerry Springer" must be great.

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com