I didn’t watch The O.C. until last season and I was never all that impressed by it.  This show seems to be headed towards getting canned.

Fox has only ordered 16 episodes of the show for next year according to E! Online.

Considering that 22 episodes of a show constitute your typical season and The O.C. has averaged 25 a season during its three-year run, this doesn’t bode well for the prime-time soap, although a Fox spokesperson said that since it doesn’t premiere until Nov. 2 (allowing for baseball’s World Series) this fall, there’s no technical reason to have a full schedule of episodes.

If the network airs all 16 new episodes in a row, it will be out of O.C. by February, giving Fox the opportunity to take a midseason replacement for a test drive, Variety reported Wednesday.

The O.C. will be competing head to head with Grey’s Anatomy which will be moving to Thursday night. Also, having killed off Mischa Barton, and entering its fourth season, the show appears to be headed towards being replaced later this season.