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If you’re looking for “Taken” on NBC’s schedule Friday night, you won’t find it there



Nor will you find it the next Friday, or the next. The network has pulled the low-rated second-year series from its schedule for the remainder of the season. Bryan Mills’ particular set of skills aside, that spells an almost certain cancellation for the show.

“Taken” will get to finish out Season 2, but on Saturdays in the summer. It’s slated to return to NBC Saturday, May 26 to burn off its remaining episodes.

NBC’s decision to renew “Taken” was a mild surprise last year, as it averaged just a 1.0 same-day rating among adults 18-49 airing behind “The Voice” on Mondays. It was, however, produced in-house by Universal Television and was relatively inexpensive thanks to a co-financing deal with EuropaCorp.

With a move to Fridays this season, however, ratings for “Taken” went off a cliff. It’s averaging just a 0.4 rating among adults 18-49 and 2.76 million viewers, making it NBC’s lowest-rated series this season. (Seven days of delayed viewing bring the averages up to 0.7 and 4.38 million.)

Even in the lower-expectations environment of Friday night, those numbers aren’t sustainable.

Two-hour editions of “Dateline” will fill out the Friday schedule following “Blindspot” for the rest of the season.