MTV Cancels Racy Drama Series 'Skins'

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By Nellie Andreeva

MTV will not be going with a second season of its racy teen drama Skins. The news is not particularly surprising as it's been almost three months since the series ended its freshman run. "Skins is a global television phenomenon that, unfortunately, didn’t connect with a US audience as much as we had hoped," MTV said in a statement. "We admire the work that the series’ creator Bryan Elsley did in adapting the show for MTV, and appreciate the core audience that embraced it."

Skins, an adaptation of the praised British series, became one of MTV's most talked-about shows ever when TV watchdog the Parents Television Council characterized it as possibly "the most dangerous television show for children that we have ever seen.” It called on the Feds to open an investigation for possible child pornography and exploitation on the show, which, in keeping with the British original, employed (often underage) teen actors to play the characters of the same age. That led to a number of advertisers pulling from the show, but MTV stuck with it and aired the entire first season with small editing of the more explicit content. Ratings-wise, Skins was solid while not spectacular. It opened with 3.3 million viewers for its premiere, which followed Jersey Shore, dropping half of it in its second episode. After several weeks of declines, the show's numbers picked up toward the end of its freshman run, which wrapped with 1.2 million viewers for the finale. Skins' ratings are comparable with those for MTV's other scripted series, The Hard Times Of RJ Berger, which is back for a second season, and recent entry Teen Wolf. However, because of it MA rating, Skins could not be repeated throughout MTV's schedule like the other shows, putting more pressure on the premiere telecast to perform very well so the network can get enough bang for its buck. In addition to Teen Wolf, MTV has six more new scripted series in the pipeline to launch in the next year.


Source: Deadline

#1 It's not a show for "children".

#2 MTV knew exactly what it was getting when it signed on for it - it was very very close to the UK original, but didn't go as far.

#3 The most dangerous show to kids is not something like Skins which shows kids how they actually are but the shows like Jersey Shore which glorify bad behavior in real people.
 
TV watchdog the Parents Television Council characterized it as possibly "the most dangerous television show for children that we have ever seen.”

Children show not sure how that works just cause it stars teens doesn't make it for kids
 
I can't stand the Parents Television Council. It's such bullshit. First of all, it's the parents job to monitor what their child is watching. Second of all, most [if not all] cable providers give a parental control option allowing parents to block certain stations they don't want their children to watch. And third, it's not MTV's job to parent children, it's their job to entertain.

They pulled this bullshit with Rihanna's "Man Down" music video. She is depicted as shooting her rapist in the video, and they went all kinds of ape shit crazy on her. Just like MTV, Rihanna didn't sign up to be a role model, she signed up to be a musician. Parents and this council need to get over themselves. :rolleyes:

With that said, I couldn't stand the American Skins anyway, so I sorta lolled at them getting cancelled. I didn't think it lived up to the UK version, and I think they tried too hard to be risque. They could of had a really amazing show if they weren't so adamant on making it a carbon copy of the UK version.
 
you know in terms of lessons to learn from music videos if i had children i would want them to learn to shoot anyone that tries to rape them . . . might just be how i was raised but that seems like a really good idea
 
Damn straight. If a guy tried to rape me and there was a weapon near by, you best believe I would use it on his ass.

And agreed Vil. I loved that Gabrielle Union spoke up about it.
 
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