So ... who's out first?

What network show was the first to be canceled this season?

Well, that question is harder to answer than you might think. And not just because network executives are loathe to use the word "cancel" because they don't want to ruffle the feathers of stars and studio executives they might want to work with in the future.

Apparently, network execs also think we won't notice if a show suddenly disappears from the schedule. And, quite honestly, most of us don't with the really low-rated ones.

The first show to get yanked off the air during the 2006-07 season was Fox's Thursday-night sitcom "Happy Hour," which aired a grand total of three times before the network sent it on hiatus a week earlier than originally scheduled.

(Lots of Fox shows are currently on hiatus because of postseason baseball.)

Fox tells us that "Happy Hour" will return in November, but such promises are worth, well, not much.

Three also proved to be an unlucky number for the CBS drama "Smith," which got the ax after a trio of low-rated Tuesday outings. The network has yanked the show effective immediately and will air a "CSI" rerun tonight and repeats of "Criminal Minds" the next two weeks while programmers try to figure out what to do next.

At the same time, NBC has effectively canceled the drama "Kidnapped," although that show won't entirely disappear from the schedule right away. It will, however, pretty much disappear because the Peacock network is exiling it to Saturday nights at 8 p.m. (as of Oct. 21), where it will play out the string of its 13-episode order and then sign off for good.

We are, however, promised that the Big Kidnapping Mystery will be solved at the end of those 13 episodes. Which would be nice, don't you think?

NBC is inserting an edition of the newsmagazine "Dateline" on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. beginning this week.

FOX SHUFFLES LINEUP: The plan at Fox this fall was to premiere its lineup early (late-August to early September) and establish its new shows strongly so that, after a break for baseball's postseason, they could return without much of a hiccup in the ratings.

Didn't quite work out that way. When Fox returns to its regular schedule, it won't be the same regular schedule the network was airing before the baseball playoffs began.