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Q: I just enjoyed "Red Band Society." I understand it's going on hiatus. Will it be back? How about a second season?

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Author: 
Adam Thomlison / TV Media

In the typically commitment-phobic terms of network television, Fox hasn't officially canceled "Red Band Society," it just doesn't want any more episodes. In fact, it may not even want all the episodes it has.

Fox declined to order more than the 13 episodes of the freshman series that it has already produced, but then it pulled the show from its schedule even earlier, with the final three episodes yet to air.

Whether and when those last three will air is yet to be decided. Fox may burn them off in the low-interest, late-winter weeks or in the summer. Or it may not air them at all and leave fans without even the tiny bit of closure that would have come from finishing a season.

Fox also has a third, middle-of-the-road option: It could just put them online. ABC did it with its recently canceled "Selfie," putting the final six episodes of the series on ABC.com and the video-streaming site Hulu.com.

"Red Band Society" has never caught on in the ratings. It averaged just 3.1 million viewers per week, which is half a million fewer than fellow rookie series "Gracepoint," which has been canceled outright.

The series, a dramedy about a group of teenagers living in a hospital ("red band" refers to the bracelets worn by hospital in-patients), drew a fair bit of buzz early on, thanks in large part to the people who made it. It stars Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer (of the 2011 film "The Help") and is produced by a guy you may have heard of named Steven Spielberg.

 

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