Jekyll and Hyde Axed By ITV
Have to say that I rather saw this coming, but ITV have officially axed their misplaced Sunday teatime show Jekyll and Hyde. Writer Charlie Higson posted the following to his twitter account:
Sad day today as ITV announce they don’t want any more #JekyllandHyde Ah well, I tried. It was a grand adventure while it lasted.
— charlie higson (@monstroso) January 5, 2016
This didn’t really come as a huge shock given the show’s rather lacklustre viewing figures pulling in just 1.8m for it’s finale.
Based on the famous Robert Louis Stevenson book, the show first aired back in October, but immediately drew a number of complaints due to it’s 6.30pm time slot. Higson did say the show was commissioned as an ‘early evening family show’, but I think there was possibly a disconnect between what Higson wrote and what ITV wanted. That’s not a criticism of the show or Higson’s writing at all, I just don’t think the show really worked as an early evening family show, and was pitched badly by ITV’s advertising, which made it look like it was going to be more of a darker, 8 or 9pm show. Something aimed more at a teen rather than family audience.
This is the second time in recent years ITV had tried and failed to grab the ‘Doctor Who’ audience. Demons which aired in 2009 aimed at a similar audience also failed to find an audience, despite coming from the writers of BBC One’s hit Merlin. Whilst Jekyll and Hyde might not have worked, I’m glad ITV are at least trying these things. You never know, maybe 3rd time’s the charm as they say. ;)
2 comments
ITV never gave it a chance. Everything was working against the show from the poor marketing that made it unclear who it was for to the inappropriate 6:30pm time slot. Jekyll and Hyde, and Demons are both more mature TV shows than Doctor Who and shouldn’t have been on before the watershed.
The number of complaints ITV got over Jekyll and Hyde being too violent and scary for the time slot backs that up, and also being investigated by Ofcom at the time. Ofcom did state the 6:30pm time slot was too early for the show and not what viewers would expect to be on at that time. I’m not sure why ITV is trying to appeal to kids on ITV1 anyway, they already have the kids channel CITV which is what kids should be watching.
If ITV want a successful sci-fi or fantasy TV show, then they need to get out of this “If it’s sci-fi or fantasy it needs to be aimed at kids” mindset. Just look at the worldwide success of the 18 rated Game of Thrones to see how well an adult-oriented fantasy TV show can do, and the failure of ITV’s family-friendly Game of Thrones rip-off Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands.
What a shame because that were a pretty good shown, at least they should let a proper end to the series for the fans who likes the story
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