• November 13, 2001

After only two weeks on the air, "America.01," the low-rated ABC News magazine devoted to covering the changes in the country after Sept. 11, has been put on hiatus. The newsmagazine, which premiered on Nov. 2, was created in order to fill the gap left by reality series "The Mole," which was also benched because of low ratings.

With only a couple of weeks to get up to speed and promote itself, "America.01" failed to attract viewers. Last Friday, the newsmagazine averaged 6.4 million viewers, slipping from its anemic debut scores of a week earlier.

A spokesman confirmed the move, saying, "The network has decided to take 'America.01' off Friday nights at 8 p.m., which turned out to be a very difficult time period in which to launch a news program. We will continue to work on the program during this hiatus as we look for a time period that will be better for this program."

As previously planned, "The Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Special" will air Friday in the time slot. On Nov. 23, ABC plans to air "America's Funniest Home Videos." -- Variety