This is one in a series of Media Life previews of those programs.
 
Name of show  
“Lipstick Jungle”
 
Timeslot 
NBC, Thursday 10 p.m.
 
Plot synopsis 
The latest of “Sex and the City” author Candace Bushnell’s creations to make it to TV, “Lipstick Jungle” follows three high-powered women living and working in New York, and supporting each other along the way.
 
There’s Wendy (Brooke Shields), a film executive whose busy work schedule makes it tough for her to also balance family; Nico (Kim Raver), a fashion magazine editor in chief who wants to become CEO; and Victory (Lindsay Price), a designer who begins the series trying to save her business after a fashion show falls flat.
 
Produced by Bushnell, along with Timothy Busfield and Oliver Goldstick, “Lipstick Jungle” also stars Andrew McCarthy (“Joy Luck Club”), Julian Sands (“24”), David Alan Basche (“United 93”), David Norona (“Frasier”), Paul Blackthorne (“Big Shots”) and Robert Buckley (“Fashion House”).
 
Outlook  
Under normal circumstances, the Thursday 10 p.m. timeslot is one of broadcast’s most competitive, but the writers’ strike has created a TV environment that’s anything but normal. Competition is a lot softer as “Jungle” takes over the timeslot from “ER.” That will work in its favor.
 
“Jungle’s” main competition in the time period will likely come from ABC’s “Eli Stone,” which leads out of “Lost” and last week averaged a solid 11 million total viewers and 4.0 rating among viewers 18-49 for its debut episode.
 
But media people don’t expect those numbers to hold. “Stone” held less than two-thirds of “Lost’s” lead-in, and viewership fell off in its second half hour. In week two, it will likely fall further.
 
CBS, meanwhile, has repeats of “Without a Trace” at 10 p.m. on Thursdays, but while that show has a loyal following, its repeats don’t do as well as other CBS crime dramas like “CSI.”

Plus, NBC is clearly going after the female audience with “Jungle,” and there’s no other show with a strong lead female character in this slot, which could help the new show.
 
The buzz
If “Lipstick Jungle” sounds eerily familiar, it should. ABC debuted the similarly themed “Cashmere Mafia,” from “SATC” executive producer Darren Star, last month, but it hasn’t performed very well. The show is averaging just a 2.4 rating among viewers 18-49.
 
Media people say “Lipstick Jungle” is the better show of the two, but that’s not a huge compliment. “Mafia” is a creative disaster.

There are also concerns about the compatibility between “Jungle” and its lead-in, “Celebrity Apprentice.”
 
“‘Celebrity Apprentice’ has been solid, but at first glance there may be a disconnect between the two shows,” says Karen McCallum, media director at Esparza Advertising in Albuquerque, N.M.

But she notes that "ER" skewed heavily female, "so it's kind of a familiar timeslot for female viewers.”
 
McCallum describes “Jungle” as a cross between “Thirtysomething” and “Sex and the City.” She says, “It’s about people who are struggling with where they are in lives, using friends and family for support."
 
What critics are saying 
“Is this really what women want? Is it the escapism? The notion that the small failures of an ordinary life--husband’s not exactly what you’d hoped, work is an uphill grind--can be depicted so fetchingly in New York with gorgeous actresses that the whole thing works? That it’s not, in fact, pathetically sad? Please say this is entertainment – and nothing more. That might not make it all right, but it would restore a whole lot of faith.” – Tim Goodman, San Francisco Chronicle
 
“The chums spend a lot of ‘Sex and the City’-ish time dishing while walking, eating, or drinking; they all have man problems (their guys are sensitive wimps, including Andrew McCarthy’s mega-billionaire, whom I call Mr. Small). And really, if my main reason for preferring ‘Lipstick’ to ‘Cashmere’ is that I'd rather spend time with Brooke Shields than Lucy Liu, wouldn’t I — and by ’I,’ I mean you — be better off reading a book? And a better book than ‘Lipstick Jungle?’” – Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly
 
“‘Lipstick Jungle’ is the superior product of this winter’s ‘career-woman pals try having it all’ dramedies, but that’s not an especially esteemed sorority. Those dueling projects remain so similar that only their parents would immediately know them apart -- which is fitting, since ‘Jungle’ matriarch Candace Bushnell teamed with ‘Cashmere Mafia’s’ dad, Darren Star, on ‘Sex and the City’ -- and NBC should face an uphill climb getting its got-there-second hour sampled.” – Brian Lowry, Variety