CONTROVERSY FAILS TO BOOST RATINGS FOR MTV’S SKINS

All of that controversy over MTV’s racy new teen drama Skins did not translate into a big ratings surge for its second episode on Monday. In fact, ratings dropped by more than 50 percent — to 1.6 million from 3.26 million for its premiere. On Tuesday, the Parents Television Council, which had organized a protest campaign against the show, commended a number of advertisers who had responded by removing their commercials from it. PTC President Tim Winter boasted in a statement. “Of the eight advertisers we called out publically [sic] after the premiere, none of them appeared in the second episode. Our sincere hope is that no advertiser would willingly sponsor a program that glorifies teen drug and alcohol abuse, in addition to sexual content involving minors that could actually be illegal.” Advertisers who remained were mostly movie studios — and PTC exec Dan Issett indicated in an interview with Advertising Age that the group won’t be going after them. “It’s simply media companies propping each other up — one form of commercial media buying time on another form of commercial media.”