THE future of Bravo’s former franchise, “Queer Eye,” remains murky in the wake of faltering viewership.

“In the end, it’s going to come down to ratings,” says an industry source familiar with the situation.

Bravo officials insist that “Queer Eye,” in its fourth season, remains one of the network’s most-watched shows and has, in fact, just completed filming a new season set to run sometime in 2007.

New episodes from the current season are still on the air through this fall.

But a closer look at the show’s ratings over the years reveals a significant decline.

During its initial 2003 run, “Queer Eye” averaged over 2 million viewers – which has now shrunk to 455,000 viewers, according to Nielsen.

Network officials dismiss talk of “Queer Eye” going out of production anytime soon.

” ‘Queer Eye’ remains the core of our Tuesday night strategy,” a Bravo spokeswoman said yesterday.

A decision about future seasons of “Queer Eye” will not be decided until January, sources said.

That could be affected by the show’s stars – Carson Kressley, Thom Filicia, Jai Rodriguez, Ted Allen and Kyan Douglas – who may be nearing the end of the contracts they signed after the first season (40-episode commitments).

Since that deal, they’ve appeared in closer to 80 episodes, including the coming season.

Terms of their current contracts were not disclosed.