The peacock network has gotten tired of picking up the tab for “three of New York’s most powerful women.” They’re not ordering more episodes of the Lipstick Jungle TV show after two seasons and 20 episodes.

Lipstick Jungle is based on the best-selling book by Sex and the City’s Candace Bushnell and follows the lives of three high-powered friends; former studio president Wendy Healy (Brooke Shields), magazine editor Nico Reilly (Kim Raver), and fashion designer Victory Fords (Lindsay Price). Others castmembers include performers like Paul Blackthorne, Andrew McCarthy, Robert Buckley, Sarah Hyland, David Norona, Dylan Clark Marshall, Seth Kirschner, Matt Lauria, David Alan Basche, and Marcia DeBonis.

The series debuted as a midseason replacement series on February 7, 2008. Despite being part of NBC’s Thursday night line-up, Jungle only attracted 7.54 million viewers and a 2.9/8 rating/share of the 18-49 demographic. The rest of the season averaged fewer than six million viewers each week.

Because of the writers strike, only seven episodes were produced. Ratings-challenged NBC decided to take a chance and renewed the show for a second year of 13 episodes, hoping that the numbers would improve.

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When Jungle returned for its second season, the ratings were even lower than they were in season one. On Wednesday nights, the show averaged a paltry five million viewers and a 2/5 rating/share. After five weeks, NBC essentially gave up on the series and moved it to Friday nights at 10pm. Much of the Jungle audience didn’t follow and those two episodes have averaged just 3.26 million.

To no surprise, NBC has pulled the plug on the show’s future. The series’ writers actually cleaned out their offices last week. On the positive side, all 13 episodes of this season are being completed and will continue to be shown on Friday nights for the immediate future. Seven have aired, leaving six episodes to go. Because production is so close to wrapping, it’s unlikely that the final episode will conclude the series’ storylines. It’s even more unlikely that NBC would order a third season.

It’s expected that Friday Night Lights will take Jungle’s place in January. Stay tuned!

Image courtesy NBC.