According to internet gossip, in early November they were going to cut it off at the knees without a conclusion. Then they had a ratings surge and decided to show all the episodes in hopes of creating more interest in the series on dvd.

I have given up on the major networks producing a succesful scifi series. The current executive mentality does not match up with the scifi genre and they have no clue of how to cast and schedule scifi much less make corrections that are needed in almost every series. Maybe the next generation will be better at it.

The network loved the show when it was basically a fantasy island story of a whore house but when the ratings flagged and they saw the way that Whedon was taking the show they wanted to bail. Guess what, the ratings picked up with the more intelligent scripts but they can't connect the dots. Too bad, I understand Whedon had quite the dystopian epic planned for the long haul.