

If you’re one of the hard-working people trying to create new episodes of “The Cape,” then you knew this one was coming.

The production order for “The Cape” has been reduced from 13 episodes to 10, according to Deadline.com. Although NBC won’t give any indication on the overall fate of “The Cape,” a move like this is hardly a vote of confidence from the network.

“The Cape” premiered with a 5.0 rating/8 share in a special Sunday airing Jan. 9. However, when the show made its move to its regular Monday slot, ratings fell quickly. It’s first episode grabbed just a 3.8/6 in the Fast National overnight ratings from The Nielsen Co., a 24 percent drop.

Later episodes slipped even further, dropping to a 3.2/5.

Because production has just wrapped on Episode 10, that means production will be stopped immediately, and likely won’t start back up.

But still, the show is averaging a 3.5/5 after three episodes, still stronger than what NBC did in that timeslot the year before. However, at the rate of decline, the show could finish behind last year’s numbers, and end up NBC’s worst-performing Monday show.

Not helping “The Cape” is the new Kathy Bates series “Harry’s Law.” That show premiered to a 7.0/12 three weeks ago, and has held on hard, nearly doubling the audience of its “Cape” lead-in.

Through last week, “Harry’s Law” is by far NBC’s highest-rated show so far this season, finishing in the top 20 of television franchises, and is 24 percent better than NBC’s second highest-rated show, “Law & Order: Los Angeles.”

“The Event” is averaging a 4.2/6 in the same timeslot, although that show’s most recent episodes have averaged a 3.5 household rating.

When included with its Sunday episode, “The Cape” is still the second highest-rated genre show through the end of last week behind only “No Ordinary Family” on ABC. However, ratings for the genre overall are down on the networks, especially since no series has been around to replace “Lost,” which ended its storied run last season.

“The Cape” airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET.