NBC have announced they've pulled the plug on freshman series 'Allegiance' after airing just five episodes of the drama. While eight episodes of the series had already been filmed, the show's cancellation is effective immediately, so it looks like the remaining three episode wont be seeing the light of day.

hope davisHope Davis starred in 'Allegiance'.

'Allegiance' starred newcomer Gavin Stenhouse as Alex O'Connor, a CIA analyst who is unknowingly investigating his own family. Alongside Stenhouse the series also starred Hope Davis and Scott Cohen as O'Connor's parents, as well as Margarita Levieva and Kenneth Choi. It had been based on Israeli television series 'The Gordin Cell'.

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According to E!News, the series pulled in a respectable 5 million total viewers and a 1.1 demo rating when it premiered on February 5th, but since then numbers have fallen rapidly. Last week's episode is said to have earned only 3.4 million viewers with a 0.8 rating.

'Allegiance' had occupied the network's 10pm time slot on Thursdays, which will now be taken over by family drama 'The Slap' which stars Zachary Quinto, Thandie Newton and Peter Sarsgaard. Based on the Australian series of the same name, 'The Slap' follows events after an adult is accused of hitting another family's child, Uma Thurman also stars.

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Taking ‘The Slap’s’ former 8pm time slot will be new series 'Dateline: The Real Blacklist' hosted by Richard Engel. The NBC News series will "focus on conspiracy-themed investigations and crimes that involve larger-than-life perpetrators and circumstances," the network said in a press release.