Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: MTV will not be going with a second season of its racy teen drama Skins. The news is not particularly surprising as it’s been almost three months since the series ended its freshman run. “Skins is a global television phenomenon that, unfortunately, didn’t connect with a US audience as much as we had hoped,” MTV said in a statement. “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, an adaptation of the praised British series, became one of MTV’s most talked-about shows ever when TV watchdog the Parents Television Council characterized it as possibly “the most dangerous television show for children that we have ever seen.” It called on the Feds to open an investigation for possible child pornography and exploitation on the show, which, in keeping with the British original, employed (often underage) teen actors to play the characters of the same age. That led to a number of advertisers pulling from the show, but MTV stuck with it and aired the entire first season with small editing of the more explicit content. Ratings-wise, Skins was solid while not spectacular. It opened with 3.3 million viewers for its premiere, which followed Jersey Shore, dropping half of it in its second episode. After several weeks of declines, the show’s numbers picked up toward the end of its freshman run, which wrapped with 1.2 million viewers for the finale. Skins’ ratings are comparable with those for MTV’s other scripted series, The Hard Times Of RJ Berger, which is back for a second season, and recent entry Teen Wolf. However, because of it MA rating, Skins could not be repeated throughout MTV’s schedule like the other shows, putting more pressure on the premiere telecast to perform very well so the network can get enough bang for its buck. In addition to Teen Wolf, MTV has six more new scripted series in the pipeline to launch in the next year.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.