Pushing what? We're ABC, and we don't remember having that show

...and that's how you cancel a show without removing it from the schedule. You just forget about it.
Pushing Daisies had its lowest audience ever after being off the air for two weeks. This is just a wild guess, but maybe it would have done better if ABC bothered to promote the show. They had ads for Dirty Sexy Money, which is also nearly out the door, but nothing about a magic pie maker and his not-dead-anymore girlfriend. Meanwhile, Knight Rider is still out on the road, making fans of the original show sick.

OK, so why is still happening? Maybe we can blame the economy. Last year, when the Dow was at 12 thousand, we were in the mood about a show where this pie making guy named Ned could revive the dead by touching them, then solving their deaths with a cynical P.I., a not-dead-anymore girlfriend, and a pocket-sized waitress. Now, the Dow is at 7500 (which is somehow Barack Obama's fault according to so-called experts on the radio), banks are failing, and auto bigwigs are begging Congress for a bailout while refusing to fly coach. With life suddenly not so bright, people scowl at anything cute and cheery, and that includes that pie maker. After all, Ned, could you save the economy if you hugged the New York Stock Exchange, General Motors and Washington Mutual? Come to think of it, if he did, NASDAQ, Chrysler and Citibank would cease to exist 61 seconds later.

So, maybe it's the economy that cut the audience in half. Maybe it was the writer's strike that ended the first season after nine shows, or ABC playing lots of promos for season two but neglecting to show the first season again. The Mobile Pie Hole tour may have been a good idea, but reminding people how good the first season was would have been more effective. At least Fox did that with Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles by repeating that against the Olympics...considering the gold medal events didn't start until after 10 PM.

It's just a shame a cheery, yet slightly dark, show like Pushing Daisies is being allowed to fade away by just forgetting it exists. This is worse than how Fox screwed up Firefly by rejecting the pilot, and showing it last. At least it's a mistake they will never be allowed to forget, thanks to DVD sales. Short of tossing a 200-foot pie at the ABC complex in Burbank, let's do what we can to show ABC that what it's doing to Pushing Daisies will also be an unforgettable mistake.