Brooke Shields says 'Lipstick' not canceled

"The Live Feed says we got a 1.4 rating. Is that bad?"

Brooke Shields told US Weekly that "Lipstick Jungle" is not canceled:

"They thought that because 'My Own Worst Enemy' has been shut down that the same thing had happened to us, and it's not true ... they're not breaking down the sets. We're still working. We still have more to do, so it's erroneously presented that we've been canceled, thank God."

So what's going on?

Well, to start, news outlets did not report "Lipstick" was canceled just because "Enemy" was canceled. That's just silly.

"Lipstick" is indeed still shooting, wrapping its 13th episode this week. The true-at-the-time news last week that NBC decided to not order more episodes -- effectively dooming the show -- did not preclude the production from finishing the episode it was still working on.

But now NBC's stance has moved back on the fence, for a couple reasons, though a pickup for the show remains unlikely.

As demonstrated here, the outcry over "Enemy" being canceled was fairly weak while the outcry over "Lipstick" was impressively vehement (fans are mailing tubes of lipstick to the network). Sources say "Lipstick" backers (some inside NBC) are doing a full court press (public and private) to lobby for a pickup. Shields' comment is less a reflection of reality than part of a concerted effort to change reality.

Few of NBC's shows have received this kind of outpouring of positive fan reaction. Does it really want to cancel an underperforming show that's getting a passionate response?

Another factor is Friday's episode. Two days after the cancellation stories made the rounds, the show went up 17% in the adult demo from the week before. And the previous week's episode went up 20%.

Those are big gains ... but they're big gains from small numbers. Friday had 3.6 million viewers and 1.4 rating among adults 18-49. Unless Shields is willing to work pro bono, that's still too low for a scripted drama in primetime. Internal "Lipstick" defenders note the show is gaining plenty from DVR viewing, but so did "Life" when it moved to the same slot (you may not know your show was shipped into broadcast Siberia, but your Tivo does).

Plus, NBC has traveled these fan protest badlands before. The network was cattle-prodded into picking up a second season of "Friday Night Lights" and the ratings didn't improve. Same story with CBS and "Jericho." Fans can make a lot of noise, but it only means that some people watching the show feel strongly about the program, not that buying more episodes will translate into a profitable product.

Only one more "Lipstick" episode is currently scheduled to air -- this Friday. For the next two weeks after, NBC has scheduled other programming. NBC hasn't decided whether to run the remaining four hours. The network would probably love a couple more weeks of data to see if those Friday numbers keep rising, but given the holidays and the 13th episode wrapping this week, the network's final-final "Lipstick" decision, whatever it is, might have to be a leap of faith.