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There won't be any high-up executive decisions saving "Dollhouse" this time.

Fox has officially pulled the plug on the Joss Whedon series, which was in the middle of its second season. However, the network has made it clear they will still air all 13 episodes of the Eliza Dushku-starring show.

Whedon himself was getting ready to tell the world about the show's demise, but it seems that Variety has beat him to the punch. Of course, such a move shouldn't really surprise anyone since ratings were well below what they were last year when Fox surprised just about everyone (except Airlock Alpha, which was the first to report it) that it had renewed the show. At the same time, Fox pulled "Dollhouse" off its November sweeps schedule, feeling more comfortable showing reruns that night than new episodes.

"Dollhouse" was averaging a 1.4 rating/3 share in four episodes aired Friday nights this season. That was nearly 42 percent behind what the show picked up last year when paired with "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles." Unlike "Sarah Connor," which had similar ratings to "Dollhouse" after its move to Fridays, "Dollhouse" was a Fox production, so the overall media company could benefit from DVD sales, syndication deals etc., while only Warner Bros. Television would be able to take advantage of that for "Sarah Connor."

While many fans were elated that "Dollhouse" was returning, there was considerable surprise that Fox was leaving the show on Friday night, and worse, pairing it with comedies.

Sadly, to show how much Fox really was struggling in Fridays overall, one show that was averaging a 1.6/3 in overnights on Fridays, "Brothers," moved to Sundays this past week, and more than doubled its audience with a 3.4/6. Of course, no one knows how "Dollhouse" would fare on a different night, but the high number of people who chose to DVR and watch it later is usually a strong indication that there is an audience for a show, but it's simply in the wrong timeslot.

The Futon Critic gave fans a little bit of hope when they repeated statements from Fox that the show is not exactly "cancelled," but instead having its season capped at 13 episodes, and after that, a decision would be made on whether a third season for the 2010-11 season had been ordered. However, the site backpedaled from that following a story from The Hollywood Reporter saying the show was indeed cancelled.

The idea of "Dollhouse" was an interesting one, but one that struggled with network interference from the start. Poo-pooing Whedon's original premise of having a more serialized drama, Fox instead wanted to see standalone stories that would simply have Dushku's character -- a woman who has different personalities uploaded to create various characters -- going from one adventure to the next. However, Fox would eventually back off from that and allow Whedon to finish the season the way he wanted, including the full introduction of the character Alpha, that was played by "Firefly" alum Alan Tudyk.

Fox says "Dollhouse" will return Dec. 4, and will have its series finale on Jan. 22. The show is currently in production on its 11th episode, and Whedon has told fans in past interviews that he was looking to do the 13th episode as a sort of series finale, but still leaving room for possibly more stories afterward.

Whedon talked about Fox's move to keep "Dollhouse" on Fridays with Airlock Alpha during San Diego Comic-Con in July. To see the video of that interview, click here.

See what Joss Whedon has to say about the cancellation by clicking here.

"Dollhouse" airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET, and returns Dec. 4.