The big story the past few days since the premiere of Skins on Monday night is whether the show is too racy to be aired, even on cable’s MTV. The Parent’s Television Council is calling it the “most dangerous show on television”, and advertisers are pulling out of the controversial series one-by-one. However, is all the exposure that has been covered in the news media only going to help it grow an audience this Monday even without a new episode of Jersey Shore as its lead-in? Sure, advertisers are pulling out of it, but with all the negative press it is getting lately, will MTV pull it (highly doubtful since the premiere of Jersey Shore also received a lot of negative press that only helped it make it into a ratings phenom)? Any press is good press, right?
The U.S. version of Skins features scenes which are too explicit, and may even violate federal child pornography statutes, reports say. Yesterday, Taco Bell had pulled its ads off Skins after the Parents Television Council urged people to contact the company and protest. We can now report that Wrigley gum, General Motors and H & R Block are the latest to follow suit and pull their ads. “It was never our intent to endorse content that would offend consumers,” the folks at Wrigley said in a statement released Saturday.
The first episode last Monday drew 3.3 million viewers, a blockbuster number for a cable show. But since then, groups like the Parents Television Council have been lambasting Skins for its sexy content in a show being “marketed directly to children.”
No reaction from MTV yet. In a statement, MTV said it is in compliance with all “applicable legal requirements, but also with our responsibilities to our viewers.”
By the way, we have just put up quite a few photos from the premiere episode of Skins on Monday night, featuring the teenage stars in quite racy situations, which ignited the Parent’s Television Council to call the series “dangerous”.
This show will generate a lot of controversey, so probably a lot of ratings.
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