ABC had a plan for "Day Break."

After airing six episodes of "Lost" on Wednesdays at 8 p.m., ABC would send that show on hiatus and insert "Day Break," a mystery/thriller about a guy reliving the same dangerous day over and over again. "Day" would air its 13 episodes, wrap up its mystery, and then make way for the rest of this season of "Lost."

There were two problems with that plan. First, "Day Break" was not a good show. And, second, once viewers got a look at it, they realized it was not a good show.

So, after airing just six of those 13 episodes, "Day Break" has gotten the ax. It's gone. Don't expect to see it on ABC again. (Although remaining episodes will probably end up on the Internet and maybe on a Disney/ABC-owned cable network.)

The "Day Break" mystery remains unsolved, but the cancellation was certainly not an unexpected twist. ABC had already announced that the comedies "Knights of Prosperity" and "In Case of Emergency" would begin airing Wednesdays at 8 and 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 3, leaving "Day Break" without a time slot.

It came as a bigger surprise when ABC also announced that "Show Me the Money" was getting yanked off the air, effective immediately. Not because that the William Shatner-hosted game show was good (it wasn't) or because the ratings were decent (they weren't), but because a week before canceling it, ABC had announced the show would move to Tuesday nights and had ordered additional episodes of the program. (Um ... hello? Hello? Anybody home at ABC?)

Production has shut down on "Money," and there's no word if (or when) the remaining episodes will ever air. (If you're anxiously waiting for that to happen, don't hold your breath. And, please, get some help.)

ABC programmers began this pre-holiday clearance by giving the hook to "Help Me Help You." The Ted Danson comedy (which never actually achieved much in the way of humor) is officially on hiatus after nine episodes aired, but the show is out of production, and there's no word on when (or if) the remaining four installments will ever air on the network.

For the next couple of weeks, ABC will air repeats of "George Lopez" and "According to Jim" on Wednesdays at 8 and 8:30 p.m., respectively. And "America's Funniest Home Videos" will air Tuesdays at 7 p.m. beginning Jan. 2.

WHEN "LOST" RETURNS in February, it won't be on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. It will be on Wednesdays at 9 p.m.

There are three logical reasons for that:

1. "Lost" will avoid competing with CBS's "Criminal Minds," which was beating it before the ABC show went on hiatus.

2. "Lost" will avoid competing with the "American Idol" results show.

3. Given that ratings for "Lost" were in decline, this probably won't make things any worse.

Unless, of course, following two episodes of "According to Jim" (at 7 and 7:30 p.m.) and episodes of two new comedies ("Knights of Prosperity" at 8 p.m. and "In Case of Emergency") — which are going to be facing some stiff competition — helps speed the downward trend in "Lost" ratings.

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com