NBC has moved in to cut the order to freshman drama The Player from 13 to 9 episodes. The series, from Sony Pictures TV, is currently filming Episode 9, so production will stop when it wraps. The show will continue to air in its Thursday 10 PM slot.

NBC’s decision comes on the heels of The Player posting its first ratings uptick last night, rising a tenth in adults 18-49 from last week in Live+same day to a 0.8 in 18-49 (+4% in total viewers to 4.14 million).

The Player , a male-skewing action drama starring Philip Winchester and Wesley Snipes, has had a tough time on Thursdays where it faced football on CBS as well as baseball. Thursday Night Football on CBS wraps next week and baseball season is heading into its finale, so the last episodes of The Player will not have sports competition. However, the show’s fate has been sealed before it got to that stage.

Primetime-Panic Your Complete Guide to Pilots and Straight-to-Series orders See All

The Player, from the producers of NBC’s The Blacklist, which serves as the newbie’s lead-in on Thursday, opened softly with a 1.2 among adults 18-49 in L+SD for the premiere behind Heroes Reborn. That was followed by a 1.0, 0.9, 0.7 and 0.8. The Player has been a solid DVR gainer, most recently hitting a percentage high of +64% L+3 DVR lift for last week’s episode.

The Player, which was launched with a modest promotional push, is the second new series this season to see its original order reduced, joining Fox’s Minority Report, which had its run trimmed from 13 to 10 episodes. At NBC, the network has given a full-season order to freshman drama Blindspot.