Cooking show served up anemic ratings over three weeks

Marco Pierre White may be among the world's greatest chefs, but his TV show wasn't right for the American palate.

NBC has pulled the plug on its culinary competition "The Chopping Block" after three low-rated episodes, including Wednesday's last-place outing. It will be replaced by repeats of " Law & Order: Criminal Intent" starting next week. Repurposed episodes of "Criminal Intent's" new season on USA were set to begin airing on NBC on Wednesday, April 29, so the reruns of older episodes will provide a little continuity in the 8 p.m. Wednesday timeslot.

"The Chopping Block" featured eight couples running competing restaurants in Manhattan, with British chef White -- a culinary star with a legendary temper who mentored chefs ranging from Mario Batali to Gordon Ramsay -- presiding over them in relatively benign fashion. The show was a late entry into the food-competition game, following FOX's Ramsay-led " Hell's Kitchen," Bravo's " Top Chef," BBC America's "Last Restaurant Standing" and numerous shows on the Food Network.

The show premiered on March 11 to a very modest 4 million viewers and dropped in each of its subsequent episodes. Wednesday's show, which aired opposite " American Idol," could muster only 2.6 million viewers -- fewer than "America's Next Top Model" on The CW. It also failed to break the 1.0 mark in the adults 18-49 demographic.

There's no word on when, or if, the remaining episodes will air.