Unscripted show just premiered, and now it's off

If you caught either of two airings of "The Great American Dream Vote" on ABC this week, you're part of a fairly exclusive club.

And there's not much chance of that club growing anytime soon. ABC announced Thursday that it's yanking the show from the schedule, like now.

Officially, it's "on hiatus," which implies that it could return at some point. But there are no plans to bring back the show, in which people make their case to the audience to have their wishes come true, anytime soon.

The reason for the quick hook, as is usually the case with things like this, is anemic ratings. The show, hosted by Donny Osmond, debuted to an audience of about 5.9 million people Tuesday night. That's not great regardless, but "Dream Vote" also squandered a lead-in audience of nearly 18 million people from the "Dancing with the Stars" results show.

Its ratings fell further in its time-period premiere at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday, to 4.56 million viewers and a paltry 1.5 rating in the key adults 18-49 demographic. In both measures, it was fifth in its time period.

ABC will air a pair of "George Lopez" episodes in the 8 p.m. hour next week. It hasn't settled on a schedule for the time period later in April.