“Lone Star” officially becomes the first show that suffers the casualty of broadcast season this Fall. The premiere on September 20 surprisingly only absorbed 4.1 million viewers and creator Kyle Killen had taken a desperate measure to ensure people watch the sophomore episode. Despite Killen’s urge for people to tune in, the number tanked lower to 3.2 million.

In place of the unfortunate show, the third season of “Lie to Me” will be premiered earlier than scheduled. The procedural drama was supposed to begin airing in November on Wednesday nights but it will now occupy the Monday 9/8c slot.

For one, “Lone Star” is not a bad drama, review-wise. Metacritic said “if this isn’t the best-received pilot of the season, it’s close” while The A.V. Club called it “the best network pilot of the year”. The “Lone Star” promotional effort is not to be blamed as well, for its logo and posters had been gracing online medias in the past few weeks.

Revealing what he thought would be the cause, Killen talked to Los Angeles Times before the cancellation. “Premiere week looked like a lot of speeding trains on the same track, with lots of carnage and wreckage,” he thought. “And Monday turned out to be a surprisingly difficult night. There are really strong returning shows and a heavily hyped new show. I think we got lost – we got missed by a huge swath of America.”

“Lone Star” is not the only show in jeopardy. “The Whole Truth” only took 4.9 million viewers while fellow ABC show “My Generation” drew 5.2 million. “Outlaw” on NBC is not doing well either, withdrawing 4.9 million viewers which is still comparably better than “The Apprentice” with 3.8 million.

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The future of “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” was thrown in a balance when star Andy Whitfield announced that his cancer has come back. Doing their part in making a decision, Starz execs admit that they are still in between two options, recast or cancel.

“The two main options are to close up shop or recast,” said exec producer Steven S. DeKnight in a statement to EW. “I want to talk to Andy and find out how he feels about the options. That’s obviously very important to us.”

Whitfield was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma earlier this year and his treatment in New Zealand delayed the production of season 2 which is supposed to be aired next year. Just a week ago, Whitfield announced that the disease has returned and he withdrew from the second season completely to endure an “aggressive treatment”.

“We’re still absorbing what’s happened. I think it’s going to be a little while before we reach any conclusions,” DeKnight said, adding Whitfield is a “trooper” who has “a very positive outlook”.

While the second season is still a question mark, a prequel to the series which doesn’t involve Whitfield’s character will be aired in January 2011. Called “Spartacus: Gods of the Arena“, the series will recall the time Batiatus is not yet the head of his family or of the gladiator training school and Gannicus is the lead gladiator in the Ludus.