MOVIES SAVE SKINS

Movie studios have been responsible for keeping MTV’s drama Skins on the air, the New York Times suggested today (Wednesday), noting that, with the exception of a Red Bull ad, every commercial on Monday night’s episode was either a movie, a movie being released on DVD or a video game. Protests from conservative groups, led […]

CONSERVATIVE PARENTS GROUP TARGETS VIACOM SHAREHOLDERS

The Parents Television Council is employing a new tactic in its effort to shut down the MTV series Skins, which, it contends, is a corrupting influence on young viewers. While in the past, the organization has asked its 1.3 million members to send their complaints about such programs to the FCC and to advertisers, it […]

WILL MTV CANCEL SKINS?

A report appearing in the New York Post on Wednesday quoting an MTV source as saying that the racy new teen drama Skins “may soon be off the air — for good” quickly drew a denial from the cable channel, which issued a statement saying, “MTV stands by the US adaptation of Skins and the […]

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 […]

WILL SKINS CONTROVERSY PRODUCE BIGGER RATINGS?

Even as two more advertisers — Subway and Schick — announced on Monday that they have asked MTV not to allow their commercials to appear on the racy new teen drama Skins, the show’s creator, Brian Elsley, was calling it a “rather old fashioned” series that forthrightly “deals with relationships, parents, death, illness, mental health […]

ADVERTISERS FLEEING MTV’S SKINS

Fans of MTV’s racy new series Skins likely thought that advertisers Taco Bell, General Motors and Wrigley were mighty, well, thinskinned for knuckling under to pressure from the Parents Television Council, which has launched a campaign to encourage followers not to buy products from sponsors of the show. In a statement on Friday, the PTC […]

GROUP CHARGES MTV’S SKINS AMOUNTS TO “KIDDIE PORN”

Claiming that the new MTV series Skins amounts to “kiddie porn,” the head of the Media Research Center, which operates the watchdog group Parents Television Council, has called upon the Justice Department to determine whether it violates U.S. statutes on child pornography. In an interview with Fox News commentator Sean Hannity on Thursday, MRC chief […]

BRITAIN GIVES BIRTH TO TWO MORE U.S. TV SHOWS

Two more audience-tested British TV series are jumping across the pond, this time into arms of MTV. Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported today (Monday) that MTV is planning to produce a U.S. version of Skins, about a group of teens dealing with their dysfunctional families, volatile relationships, and authority figures who would rather be their friends […]