
EXCLUSIVE: MTV has decided not to pick up a second season of The Inbetweeners, a remake of the award-winning British series. “While we won’t be moving forward with another season of The Inbetweeners, we enjoyed working with the show’s creators and such a talented, funny cast,” MTV spokesperson said.
The writing was on the wall for the comedy, which had soft ratings and recently saw its biggest supporters — head of programming David Janollari and co-head of scripted Clay Spencer — depart in an executive shake-up at the cable network that had Susanne Daniels taking over as new programming chief. Besides Teen Wolf — which had big-name recognition and even bigger marketing muscle behind it, including a premiere behind the MTV Movie Awards — and comedy Awkward, MTV has not been able to make a scripted series stick. Shows like Inbetweeners and I Just Want My Pants Back received critical praise but didn’t get enough promotion and were often stuck with incompatible lead-ins, resulting in low ratings and swift cancellations after one season. That will also likely be the fate for Craig Wright’s freshman Underemployed as new topper Daniels seems to be clearing the decks in order to make her mark at the network.
Brad Copeland wrote the Inbetweeners adaptation and served as showrunner on the series, which he executive produced with Iain Morris and Damon Beesley, creators of the original series, and Aaron Kaplan of Kapital Entertainment. The show revolved around four high school boys (Joey Pollari, Bubba Lewis, Zack Pearlman, Mark L. Young) who belong to the “inbetweeners” social class — teens who are not the most cool and popular but not geeky enough to be branded uncool. Alex Frnka co-starred in the series, whose pilot was directed by Taika Waititi.
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I’m glad you are pointing out that MTV is not really even marketing these shows. Underemployed is a decent show, but it was not even given a lead-in just plopped down at 10:00 pm and hardly promoted.Never watched Inbetweeners, but it was marketed poorly.
They favor their reality programming by always bringing them back earlier and even turning Snooki and J Wow to an hour show now. If MTV wants their scripted programming to succeed maybe they should start treating their scripted shows better.
It’s a mark of how poorly they’re marketing these shows that although I own both seasons of the British version of The Inbetweeners and even the movie, I had NO IDEA that this American remake had hit the airwaves. I mean, I knew it had been put into production, even, and was actually looking forward to checking it out at some point, but this passed without EVER attracting my attention. Great Job, MTV!
I would say that “underemployed” is probably the most pretentious, politically correct and exhaustedly “wanna-be-informal-whilst-being-grown-up-and-independent” shows on the network. Though I will miss “the inbetweeners” for its aim at being a relatable guy´s show. But that´s my opinion…
Nooooooooooooooooo! I know some people were against the remake, and the british version is awesome (so they say), but I really liked this show. One of the few series aimed for guys on TV right now.
Just watch the british version. American version is god awful.
This is a real shame, but I’m not surprised. The ratings were awful, despite good reviews.
not to mention this show was paired with ridiculousness. neither of those shows could honestly expect to attract each other’s audience.
“Shows like Inbetweeners and I Just Want My Pants Back received critical praise but didn’t get enough promotion and were often stuck with incompatible lead-ins, resulting in low ratings and swift cancellations after one season.”
THIS is the issue – Daniels had better make some headway with how these shows are promoted. Awkward receives little promotion too, and it seems Teen Wolf is the only thing the network has gotten behind despite Awkward’s better press and talent. Also scheduling has been an issue with where they put scripted series. Seems like programming needs to sit down with both those other departments and get coordinated.
Just show the original Brit version. This was a real turd by comparison
This one had a very negative feeling. It was depressing. In the original series, even when things went bad, the guys always ended up happy.
Now maybe the producers will look at bringing the original cast to the US and doing more seasons of the original show here. The MTV version was a big mistake; especially seeing that they already had a well established cast that had a huge international following.
Hey guys. Remember “Death Valley?” Probably could have been a hit on AMC or FX. MTV is where good ideas go to die.
This network is in a desperate need for re-branding and hoping Daniels can do something with it as it continues to sink and having to resort to lowbrow-trashfest reality shows. She needs to start branching the network AWAY from this crap and focus on developing better and more suitable programs.
An occasionally well reviewed show on a blog didn’t do well and lets all blame marketing and scheduling. Maybe they were not well conceived? Maybe scripted comedy is not in MTV wheel house? Just wondering, but looks like a lot of pa’s posting and feeding info.
Here’s an idea… MTV do some mulit-cultural shows with music involved. MTV is supposed to be the coolest network on cable not CW: The Sequel. I bet “Notorious” (the Biggie movie) gave them their best ratings in months… new network execs take note.
no official word on beavis and butthead?
I was dead set against a remake of the amazing British series, but aside from the pilot, I enjoyed the show very much. Sad to see it go…
death valley was a great show. but no promotion, no marketing, and a reality lead in added up to cancellation, just like all the other shows above. its a bummer – but really it never even had a chance.
Well if the new head of MTV cancels underemployed just to make her mark it makes her look like she has no idea what she’s doing. Janollari is a magician with developing scripted series, MTV would not have awkward and teen wolf if it weren’t for him. They’d be intelligent to keep that in mind before cancelling such a great new show.
It’s really sad that there is no marketing for the best new show they have, if they cancel I hope Fox or CW pick it up, it could work on network tv.
The MTV version of the Inbetweeners S U C K S !. the original Inbetweeners was A W E S O M E !. thank you BBC AMERICA, to the MTV idiots next time buy the original shows from Britain. from a proud American anglophile.
I think MTV should stop with the scripted series; there aren’t enough good writers out there. “Trashfest Reality TV” is what MTV is good at.
I know that was a good show I really wish mtv did something better for them
They didn’t have that much marketing for it. The problem could also be that there was rarely any re-runs. Same goes with Underemployed. I mainly see Jersey Shore or Teen Mom. Even Awkward gets re-runs and Season 2 ended a while ago.
No!!!! Love this show. Different and fresh and more real than reality counterparts.
This sucks! “99 Problems” playing as they rolled into the car wash was a classic piece of television.
Soooooo lame they canceled this! The british version was so funny, and this was just as good. I say, bring it back.
Underemployed !!!! Comeeee backkkkkkkk ! Love the show
This series was just abysmal
It took our fantastic, wit filled humour and lobotomised it completely
I thought inbetweeners was a great show! I looked forward to the new episode each week, MTV could have had much success with many of their scripted show, if only they marketed it better!