Um, yeah. Ditto.

From what I can tell, all the networks are nearly identical in their behavior: a show lives or dies based on how many viewers it gets in the first 3-5 episodes. It doesn't matter one ounce to them how passionate the fans are about a show, as long as there's a lot of them.

And yeah, once a show starts changing nights, unless it's an enormous hit (like Lost or, in the past, the X-Files), that's a sure sign it's on its last legs. Currently I'm scared for Bones, as they just moved it from Monday to Thursday. This means I have no choice but to "obtain it by other means," as I'm already recording two shows when it airs now.

Bruno, it's a good sign that the people who made the UK version are also doing the US version, I wasn't aware of that, but I can't imagine that have even a tiny amount of control over how long the show lasts. If it's successful, the network will try to run it as long as possible, if it's not, the creators will likely not be given enough warning to wrap up the story.

There have been very few exceptions to this rule, and even when there have been, the "wrap-ups" are at best unsatisfying. Take, for example, last year's show Journeyman. The show started off as a decent-but-not-great show, and ended up as (IMO) fantastic. The timing worked out just well enough so that the writers had a chance to answer a number of questions that they would have strung out longer, and in the end they gave the show a thematic ending, if not an entirely satisfying one.

It's one of the biggest complaints about network TV that I have. Everything the networks do proves how little they care about their viewers.