There wont be a second series of The Kennedys. BBC One has cancelled the multi-generation family sitcom after one series.
Series creator Emma Kennedy announced the cancellation on her personal blog, citing ratings as the main reason for The Kennedys‘ early demise :
BBC1 don’t want a second series of The Kennedys. Bottom line – we did pretty well for a series one comedy but not well enough as series 8 of Gogglebox and that, I’m afraid, is sort of it.
Viewing figures are the holy grail of Channels, some more than others and we were on a channel for whom viewing figures are very important.
We opened with a decent 2.6 which rose to 3.1 after the iPlayer figures were in. I was pleased with this. For a brand new comedy with no big BBC1 household names in it, this was a promising start.
I was warned by everyone, execs and Channel Controller included, that figures would go down after ep 1. This is normal. With very few exceptions, ratings for a series go down week on week and in our second week, we dipped to 2 (consolidated 2.5).
Week three was our low point. We were up against the Rugby World Cup Quarter Final and Celebrity Gogglebox. We dropped to 1.6 with a consolidated of 2. Gogglebox got 4m this week. It destroyed us.
Kenndy suggested the sitcom would have been better suited to BBC Two, but the sibling channel snubbed the opportunity, while talks to reboot the series hit a dead end:
The Kennedys is not brand defining for BBC1. We are a gentle narrative family comedy that would be a much better fit for BBC2. We did pitch it to BBC2, by the way, but the then controller, Janice Hadlow, didn’t want it. If it wasn’t for BBC1, it would never have been made in the first place and for this, I shall always be thankful.
There was a discussion about whether, if we did return to BBC1, whether I could make changes to the show to include big, star turns each week or change it entirely so that it was an audience sit-com. Both of these were suggested as being things I could do to up the viewing figures and make it more broad and brand defining for BBC1. I thought long and hard about this and came to the decision that I wasn’t prepared to make either change. I spoke with my producer, my director and our cast and we were all in agreement – our show was exactly what we wanted our show to be.
RIP.
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