After a season of lackluster ratings, The CW took a chance last May and renewed Life Unexpected for year two. They hoped that the audience would grow this season but it certainly hasn’t.

Season one of Life Unexpected averaged 2.0 million viewers and a 1.6 rating in the network’s target demographic of women 18-34. This season, the show’s lost more than half of the demo audience, averaging just a 0.7 rating with 1.53 million viewers.

As the network’s lowest rated show, CW execs asked for a couple additional scripts but didn’t order them into production. Life Unexpected is the only series on the network that’s been limited to 13 episodes this season.

While The CW has not officially cancelled Life Unexpected yet, it’s impossible to imagine that they’d renew it for season three. The ratings have just gone too low. Series creator Liz Tigelaar thinks so too. She told the TV Addict back in September that she believed that, if they didn’t get an order for a full season, the show was finished.

The season (likely series) finale will air in January. Deadline is reporting that the writers are treating it like the series finale and will wrap up many of the ongoing storylines.

Tigelaar was skeptical about how fulfilling the end could be. In September, she said, “Obviously if you were doing the end of this story, what I feel the fans want are Cate and Baze together, so that would be a natural series end in someway. Unfortunately, that is not going to to happen by episode 13, at least I don’t think in an artful way. So we’re just going to hope for more and if 13 ends up being our last one we will have some closure, it will feel good and the end, but it won’t be the true end.

What do you think? Should The CW have renewed or canceled Life Unexpected last spring? Why have so many viewers stopped watching? How would you like the series to end?

Image courtesy The CW.