Failure Is an Option

The TV-show graveyard is about to get a whole lot more crowded as the networks begin to decide which of their freshman class should receive immediate burial. Almost every net has prime candidates for cancellation: CBS is waffling on ''Presidio Med'' (No. 72) and giving the evil eye to ''Bram and Alice'' (No. 69), while ABC -- which already dropped ''That Was Then'' and ''Push, Nevada'' -- is keeping a death watch over ''MDs'' (No. 76). Fox's ''girls club'' (No. 79) is a goner, and the future looks grim for ''Firefly'' (No. 87) as well as UPN's ''Haunted'' (No. 109) -- though both nets insist they'll give the latter two shows more time to find an audience. The real disappointment for net execs this season has been how poorly shows from high-wattage production teams like ''Frasier'''s Christopher Lloyd and Joe Keenan (the folks behind ''Bram'') and ''ER'''s John Wells and Lydia Woodward (the perpetrators of ''Presidio'') are doing. Still, the high-profile underachievers may get a reprieve thanks to their creators' previous successes. Says one Big Four exec, ''If you like the show even though it's not doing well, but it's done by people who know what they're doing, it's easier to stick with it as opposed to sticking with people...who don't have the proven track record.''