"Just Shoot Me" has been shot down for good.

After getting yanked from NBC's schedule earlier this season, the sitcom starring David Spade returned to the air Tuesday for what was to have been a run through May, concluding with a season finale.

But now, "Shoot Me" -- which was once a hit that followed "Will & Grace" in NBC's "Must-See" Thursday lineup -- fared so poorly against rival FOX's "American Idol" this past Tuesday that the network has pulled the show with only a vague promise to air the remaining episodes sometime this summer, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Sounding a bit like David E. Kelley, who is loudly criticizing ABC programmers for shifting his "The Practice" from Sunday to Monday nights, "Just Shoot Me" creator Steve Levitan tells the Times, "Nobody even knew the show was back on," Levitan said. "We've had no chance this year."

He contends that NBC mishandled his sitcom, from its delayed premiere in the fall to what he claimed was insufficient promotion for its return against ratings powerhouse "Idol."

So potent is the power of "Idol," in fact, that The Washington Post is reporting that rather than compete with the May 25 finale of the FOX talent hunt, the WB is shifting the airtimes for its "Dawson's Creek" and "Angel" finales, while NBC rescheduled "The West Wing" finale to one week before its originally planned airdate in order to remove it from the path of "Idol."