From E! Online:

Fox is retooling its strategy as it heads into the Thursday-night fray this fall.

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Instead of sending its 9 p.m. staple, The O.C., into battle against CSI and Grey's Anatomy every week, the network announced Wednesday that it has ordered up a mere 16 episodes of the rich-kid drama for 2006-07.

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 primetime 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.

But with Mischa Barton not returning for a fourth go-round and the surviving O.C. denizens "growing up" and heading off to college in the fall, it looks as if Fox is packing up its beachfront property.

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.

ABC announced last month that Grey's Anatomy would be moving from Sundays to the juicy Thursday-at-9 spot that has been dominated by CSI for years. NBC had originally planned to add its highly anticipated new Matthew Perry drama, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, into the mix, but ended up sending the freshman series to Mondays and shelving Medium until midseason. The surprise hit Deal or No Deal will anchor the 9 p.m. slot for NBC instead.

Despite its already competitive Thursday perch last season, The O.C. still attracted 5.7 million viewers a week. But if any of those Adam Brody fans also want to check in on Dr. McDreamy, the remaining residents of Newport may end up joining Marissa Cooper in drama series heaven.

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