Teri Hatcher Felicity Huffman Leaving “Desperate Housewives?”

Are Felicity Huffman and Teri Hatcher checking out of television’s Wisteria Lane? Word on the Curb has it that Desperate Housewives is bracing for a double exit with Hatcher set to quit the show in 2012 and Huffman prepared to walk shortly thereafter.

Hatcher, 45, has played ditzy mother Susan Mayer for seven seasons. Huffman’s best-known as multi-tasking mama Lynette.

“Teri has given in her notice and is making active preparations to move on,” a TV industry insider yapped in a scoop to Britain’s Daily Mail over the weekend.

Ambition is the driving force behind Teri’s decision to abandon her Emmy-winning role on one of the small screen’s most-watched dramedies.

“She has another production deal in the pipeline and she is in the early stages of developing a sitcom that she wants to start work on immediately after she finishes Desperate Housewives – she wants a new show in time for the mid-January pilot season,” the tipster added.

Last October, Desperate writer, producer, creator Cherry, signed a deal with ABC Studios which renewed the show for an additional two years, provided that its leading cast members, including Hatcher, Huffman, and Eva Longoria Parker remain happily onboard. But all three will be out of contract if just one star leaves next season. Even though Desperate producers want to keep the show running through the end of its contract, insiders say the drama won’t work without Hatcher, meaning that the next season will be the last.

“ABC hasn’t announced its schedule yet because the future of the series is up in the air,” the source said.

“Some of the crew are disappointed in Teri, they feel like she is abandoning the show that revived her career. Desperate Housewives can’t really continue without Teri or Felicity because they need the original stars to pull in the ratings. Teri has been inspired by the success of people like Courteney Cox, who walked away from Friends and bagged her own prime-time show, Cougar Town.”

The insider continued: “She says she had an amazing run on the show but feels it is time to move on to a project that she has more control over.”

Meanwhile spokesfolks at ABC are staying mum on the Hatcher/Huffman exit rumors.

“We are working on the next season at the moment and we haven’t got anything to say about the one after,” the network said in a brief statement.