the industry

Skins Is Canceled

In a development that will surprise no one, MTV has decided not to renew their controversial adaptation of the British show Skins for a second season. The network says in a statement: “Skins is a global television phenomenon that, unfortunately, didn’t connect with a US audience as much as we had hoped. 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 came under constant attack from the Parents Television Council and lost a bunch of advertisers because of it, and that may well have been what did it in. As EW points out, while ratings weren’t great, they were at least better than the first season of MTV’s other recent foray into scripted television, The Hard Times of R.J. Berger, which has been picked up for a second season. Presumably no one will say as much, but the PTC’s vitriol and the disappearing advertisers may have played as big a part in the show’s demise as the audience size. Not that it will necessarily be grieved: General consensus was that MTV’s take, despite having OG creator Elsley on board, could never recreate the strange magic of the original. And for those few fans of US Skins: Take solace in the fact that the original, which recently wrapped its fifth season, is still, like, really good.

Skins Is Canceled