MTV's "Skins" Lost Half of Audience on Monday
The audience for MTV's racy teen drama "Skins" plunged to 1.6 million Monday night, a drop-off of more than half from its premiere a week earlier, according to Nielsen Co. ratings.
The viewer slump may signal a triumph for the Parents Television Council, a watchdog group that had blasted the series' content and accused MTV of aiming the show at underage viewers.
Based on an acclaimed British series of the same name, MTV's Americanized "Skins" depicts teens engaging in sexual activity as well as drug and alcohol abuse.
The premiere was seen by 3.3 million viewers, 1.2 million of them under 18. Since then, a number of advertisers - including Schick, Taco Bell, L'Oreal and the Subway sandwich chain - have pulled their commercials from the program.
The furor was further inflamed by a newspaper story suggesting that scenes with the series' age-appropriate actors, some of whom are minors, might violate federal child pornography laws. Last Thursday, The New York Times reported that unnamed executives at the network were concerned that the show may have crossed the line legally as well as graphically.
MTV's "Skins" Pushing the Envelope Too Far?
Photos: Could "Skins" Break Child Porn Laws?
How Parents Should Handle "Skins"
The show's producers had been ordered to make changes to "tone down some of the most explicit content," the Times reported.
In response, MTV said in a statement, "We review all of our shows and work with all of our producers on an ongoing basis to ensure our shows comply with laws and community standards."
Monday's episode, which contained depictions of two brief sexual encounters, aired unchanged from the preview version shared with critics last month.
On Tuesday, MTV noted that the audience for "Skins" improved on its lead-in, a repeat of "Jersey Shore," by one-third. Last week's "Skins" lead-in was a new episode of the hit reality series, which drew more than 7 million viewers.
Brad Adgate, an analyst for Horizon Media, declared surprise at Monday's falloff of the "Skins" audience.
"I thought it would increase a little bit because of the controversy swirling around the show," he said.
While some audience erosion for any series on its second airing is not unusual, "50 percent is a pretty significant drop," Adgate said.
Media analyst Steve Sternberg said a contributing factor could have been a backlash to the show from parents.
"It could actually mean that a lot of parents said to their kids, 'Don't watch it,"' said Sternberg, though he allowed that "usually publicity like this benefits a program."
"Or maybe the show isn't good," he added. "People who watched the first episode and didn't like it aren't necessarily going to come back."
Sternbeg noted that 1.6 million viewers is a healthy number for MTV (though not in the league with "Jersey Shore," which last Thursday was seen by 8.9 million viewers, a record audience for an MTV series).
But what does the future hold for the season's eight remaining episodes of "Skins"?
"If the ratings hold up over the next few weeks, without more advertisers pulling out, that makes it fairly successful," Sternberg.
Adgate agreed that the fate of the show won't be known for another week or two. But his forecast was dire.
"My gut reaction is, it's in a tailspin," he said.
© 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The viewer slump may signal a triumph for the Parents Television Council, a watchdog group that had blasted the series' content and accused MTV of aiming the show at underage viewers.
Based on an acclaimed British series of the same name, MTV's Americanized "Skins" depicts teens engaging in sexual activity as well as drug and alcohol abuse.
The premiere was seen by 3.3 million viewers, 1.2 million of them under 18. Since then, a number of advertisers - including Schick, Taco Bell, L'Oreal and the Subway sandwich chain - have pulled their commercials from the program.
The furor was further inflamed by a newspaper story suggesting that scenes with the series' age-appropriate actors, some of whom are minors, might violate federal child pornography laws. Last Thursday, The New York Times reported that unnamed executives at the network were concerned that the show may have crossed the line legally as well as graphically.
MTV's "Skins" Pushing the Envelope Too Far?
Photos: Could "Skins" Break Child Porn Laws?
How Parents Should Handle "Skins"
The show's producers had been ordered to make changes to "tone down some of the most explicit content," the Times reported.
In response, MTV said in a statement, "We review all of our shows and work with all of our producers on an ongoing basis to ensure our shows comply with laws and community standards."
Monday's episode, which contained depictions of two brief sexual encounters, aired unchanged from the preview version shared with critics last month.
On Tuesday, MTV noted that the audience for "Skins" improved on its lead-in, a repeat of "Jersey Shore," by one-third. Last week's "Skins" lead-in was a new episode of the hit reality series, which drew more than 7 million viewers.
Brad Adgate, an analyst for Horizon Media, declared surprise at Monday's falloff of the "Skins" audience.
"I thought it would increase a little bit because of the controversy swirling around the show," he said.
While some audience erosion for any series on its second airing is not unusual, "50 percent is a pretty significant drop," Adgate said.
Media analyst Steve Sternberg said a contributing factor could have been a backlash to the show from parents.
"It could actually mean that a lot of parents said to their kids, 'Don't watch it,"' said Sternberg, though he allowed that "usually publicity like this benefits a program."
"Or maybe the show isn't good," he added. "People who watched the first episode and didn't like it aren't necessarily going to come back."
Sternbeg noted that 1.6 million viewers is a healthy number for MTV (though not in the league with "Jersey Shore," which last Thursday was seen by 8.9 million viewers, a record audience for an MTV series).
But what does the future hold for the season's eight remaining episodes of "Skins"?
"If the ratings hold up over the next few weeks, without more advertisers pulling out, that makes it fairly successful," Sternberg.
Adgate agreed that the fate of the show won't be known for another week or two. But his forecast was dire.
"My gut reaction is, it's in a tailspin," he said.
Popular in Entertainment
- Kate wears sunny yellow for palace garden party
- "Dancing with the Stars" season 16 finale 21 Photos
- Justin Bieber booed at 2013 Billboard Music Awards
- Watch: Jennifer Aniston has awkward "Friends" reunion
- CBS picks up "Bad Teacher" to series for 2013-2014 season
- Green, Aguilera will be back on "The Voice"
- "Survivor: Caramoan" crowns a winner
- Bono and Olivia Wilde join Matt Damon's "toilet strike"
4 Comments Add a Comment
- linkicon reporticon emailicon
- The show dropped half of its audience because that half was also fans of the UK version and clearly knew which of the two were better.
- reply
- linkicon reporticon emailicon
- i strongly disagree with all you guys , Skin is a very good show . and i strongly disagree with " bringbackmfg " just about ALL teens are doing this now in days . even your nerdy student is out smokinq weed. and having sex. this show is in insite on what the everyday amercian teen gos thru. Maybe you dont like the show because your not a teen nor you can relate to anything on the show. i think skins is an awesome show point blank. Skins as nothing to do with morals anyway . People have differnt Morals and values . People can learn alot from a show like this , its about real issue that teens go thru and MTV showinq teens to see how can they deal with issues like this. So how about all you guys who have an issue with an show like this Kiss "skins" where the sun dont shine . =]
- reply
- linkicon reporticon emailicon
- Maybe it .. like they said in the article ... is just not that good of a show, the hoopla preceding a premiere can draw in a bunch of people but if the show sucks it sucks.
- reply
- linkicon reporticon emailicon
- I am so happy to see people standing up for a little more decency in t.v. programs. Just because MTV says this is what kids are doing, that doesn't make it okay to broadcast on the air especially designed for entertainment and to make them richer. It's just wrong morally. If people are that desperate to see something like this on the t.v. screen put it on one of the pay per view channels or something like that. Keep the crap off of t.v. Young people's minds are polluted enough with the shows that are on lately why do we need to add more to the mix? Then you have the people who say that it's the parents job to keep kids from watching this type of show, yet as the years go by it's like it's hard to escape it, sex is in commercials now, billboards, songs, shows, it's everywhere.
- reply
