Boy, I don't even know where to post this. Sigh.

I'm sure articles like this have shown up since the first season.

Initially I thought this was just about Brent's publicist earning their keep, but the subsequent articles sound like the real deal. My understanding is the show's airing not only in a tough time slot but was pushed way off schedule bec of the World Cup or whatever-it-was. Maybe ITV'll take that into consideration. --e

------------

http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/celebrity/113492004.htm
Bad Girls Gets The Axe?

2006-08-24 12:31:50

According to the latest tabloids, ITV's Bad Girls is to be given the axe because of a decline in ratings.

The Sun states that the prison programme will finish after its present series and quotes an insider as saying: “It’s finished.”

However the good news is according to the newspaper, the show's production company Shed already has something in the pipeline to take it's place.

Rock Rivals described as a something between the X Factor and Footballers’ Wives is apparently based on a couple of rival record labels operated by an ex-husband and wife. An ITV source said: “There’s lots of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.”

A pilot is being made for a primetime slot and the serial is due to begin next autumn.

Bad Girls started eight years ago and caused a stir with its storylines, which have included fights, sex, drugs and murder in HMP Larkhall.

Producers of the show were given a hard knockback when actress Danielle Brent decided to say goodbye to her character, the evil Natalie Buxton, recently.

ITV boss Simon Shaps allegedly added:“Absolutely no decision has been taken about the future of Bad Girls — and won’t be until after this series ends when we can sit down and assess its performance in total context.”

--------
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
From Media Guardian:

ITV is set to axe prison drama Bad Girls following a slump in the show's television ratings.

Simon Shaps, the ITV director of television, is weighing up the future of the programme, which is made by Shed Productions, the company behind Footballers' Wives.

In an email to the ITV controller of drama, Laura Mackie, leaked to Broadcast magazine, Mr Shaps said he planned to drop Bad Girls at the end of the current series, its eighth.

The show has been a big hit over the years for ITV. Five years ago Bad Girls pulled in audiences of more than 8 million, but it has been ailing recently in its 9pm Thursday slot with ratings hovering around 4 million," he said.

"It was helpful to prepare the ground with Shed when we axed Footballers' Wives."

It has also emerged that Shed is developing a script for ITV for a new series, Rock Rivals, about warring record producers.

"I'm sure [Shed is] not seeing this as a replacement for Bad Girls though, so agree we need to take a view on how to manage their expectations," Ms Mackie wrote in an email reply to Mr Shaps.

However, ITV said no decision on Bad Girls would be made before the end of the current series next month.


------------

Shed bullish on fate of Bad Girls

Chris Tryhorn
Thursday August 24, 2006
MediaGuardian.co.uk


Gallagher: Bad Girls is 'still delivering key younger viewers for ITV'

The Shed Productions chief executive, Eileen Gallagher, said today she was confident that prison drama Bad Girls will be recommissioned by ITV.
A leaked email from the ITV director of television, Simon Shaps, revealed that he was considering ending the programme's run after its current, eighth series.

But speaking to MediaGuardian.co.uk today Ms Gallagher said: "I'm pretty bullish and hopeful it will get recommissioned. But we won't know until the end of the series.

"I'm confident ITV will look at it in the round and in detail, very thoroughly. But it's their schedule and they'll have to come up with a decision that's right for them."

And she said if ITV did not want a ninth series, it was possible another broadcaster could step in. But Shed, which is also developing a new show, called Rock Rivals, for ITV, could survive if Bad Girls were left on the scrap heap, she added.

"You can't be too reliant on Bad Girls or any other drama," she said. "But it's the first drama we did and our favourite baby - we love it."

Shed was the company behind Footballers' Wives and also makes the army-set Bombshell and school drama Waterloo Road.

Ms Gallagher acknowledged that the ratings for Bad Girls had suffered recently but said it was still delivering key younger viewers for ITV.

"I've spoken to Simon and that email was about two weeks old," Ms Gallagher said. "The ratings went up dramatically last week and he's said there's no way he has made a decision about it."

She said Bad Girls' ratings, which have dipped to as low as 4 million during this series, had been damaged by opposition from BBC1's The Inspector Lynley Mysteries earlier in its run.

But it had since recovered, she said, with 4.6 million viewers and a 23% share of the audience last Thursday. The programme delivered a 25% share of 16- to 24-year-olds, Ms Gallagher added.

"It's got an incredibly loyal audience, especially its younger audience," she said.

"Without wanting to make excuses, it's not a great time to go out in the summer, when people are on holiday."

Ms Gallagher will talk to Mr Shaps about the show's future once the series ends in four weeks' time."

Well bugger me ekny :cry2

That was pretty much my response, yeah.

This is shit! It sucks big time! %&*#$!!


On a hopeful nota (major wishful thinking) If it does end, maybe they'll make a really long last episode with all the (living) old characters! Kinda like a goodbye and farewell.

Unfortunately, S8 has already been filmed, and none of the episodes are extra long. If S8 is indeed the last season, the farewell ep will be the Xmas ep. It's funny--when you watch the S7 Xmas ep, you get the feeling that they wrote it thinking it could be the very last ep--with the farewell to Fenner, the happy ending for Pat & Sheena etc.

I'm glad to hear that ratings have been up the last two weeks--I posted the publicly available ratings in the S8E7 thread, but it didn't include the most recent two eps, so if the ratings for those two are on the rise, it's a good sign. Here's the ratings from the other thread:
Ratings for BG so far this season:
BARB

w/e 13/08/2006 4.28
w/e 06/08/2006 4.18
w/e 30/07/2006 4.41
w/e 23/07/2006 4.47
w/e 16/07/2006 5.40

8 seasons, tho, is a long time for any series, and about standard for many successful shows these days...tho, structurally, this is the kind of prime-time 'soap' that can go on, theoretically, forever. Like Grand Hotel, people come, people go (but quite a lot happens.)

They're saying it's ratings...I guess they'd be forthcoming if it was anything else, but I thought the show was in its final days when I first heard about the sale of the rights for an american version. Maybe it's only a coincidence...but every other brit show sold for purposes of americanization seems to then disappear from production in britain.

Yes, whether by accident or design, that xmas special slot is looking potentially like a rather useful emergency backup for wrapping things up, should they get canned. Although I dunno that those sorts of summing-ups ever go very well, so perhaps it's best if they avoid that....

Man is this depressing or is it just me?

It's not just you! I felt like calling you a few names for being the barer of bad news, but then i remembered you're not suppose to kill the messenger. :lol:


I know season eight has been filmed already, but if this really is the last serie, maybe they'll make one more episode. To really end the show. (or perhaps change/ add stuff to the christmas episode) How knows, maybe they'll find a reason why Helen needs to pop by and Nikki will feel like visiting the Julies. (yes, i know. wishful thinking)

Are you kidding, I felt like calling myself a few well-chosen names! But I'd sat on it for a couple days--when it was just the first article I could put my head in the sand but after that... sigh.

We've been discussing that in a flurry of off-line emails but really, I think we might be better off without that if worst comes to pass: those 'summary'-type eps are often just kind of false, don't really work. And to do it with the offhand campy tone of the last xmas special would be just totally bizarre. As for "wishful thinking"... well I'm sure we're all wishfully thinking the same thing, but I'd be content for just 1 sentence about them, any little table-scrap, really.

I may be in the minority here, but I'd prefer they not mention them. At this point it was so many seasons ago, and given that someone like Di was on the show for 6 seasons and disappeared without a mention, given that no one other than the Julies and Sylvia even know who they were, I can't imagine a way they could do it which wouldn't be incredibly awkward and forced.

The thing I've enjoyed about BG post-S4 is how they've gotten rid of old characters and added new ones without looking back. It's such a refreshing change from so many US shows which hold onto their original cast until they are such charicatures, and so deadly boring that you just get sick of them. If Helen and Nikki couldn't be involved in bringing Fenner down, then I see no reason for them to have any type of connection at Larkhall (and thus with the show) anymore.

Well, yah--I was assuming they'd do it artfully. If not, obviously better off w/o, it'd just be painful & we'd hardly want that as our last coda. I think I'll just go bury my head in a vat of boiling tar or something more fun that this set of prospects...

la la la

Another article, this one with a little more detail. If anyone is a subscriber to the Broadcast Now site and can paste in the details of the email exchange, that would be very very cool:

Hokey Outsiders, Bad Girls banged up?
As reported in today’s print and online editions of today’s Broadcast, a leaked email from ITV’s director of television Simon Shaps to colleague Laura Mackie must have created a few red faces around Network centre over the last couple of days. The contents of the email, which you can read in full here, reveals a cautious lack of confidence in the long-term future of action pilot The Outsiders, and the more than distinct possibility that Bad Girls will come to an end at the close of its eighth and current series…
It seems the email was sent to controller of drama, Mackie, who then forwarded the correspondence on to head of drama Nick Elliott, but, buy fair means or foul, the contents arrived in the inbox of an executive at a rival channel. It’s the stuff of nightmares in this IT-charged world – one wrong flick of a qwerty keyboard can reveal innermost secrets to your entire inbox, and I can only find myself sympathising with the crushing embarrassment this must have caused, not just on a business level, but personally.
But the contents of the email are, undeniably, meat and drink to the media, and I’m sure Shed Productions are more than a little annoyed about the situation.

“Should we also be planning to announce Bad Girls comes to an end this series?”

ponders Shaps in his opener to Mackie, believing the cancellation of Footballers’ Wives earlier this year to be a useful sweetener to more possible bad news they may have for Shed. Mackie’s response is very much a wait and see view, saying:

“it comes down to what choices we have, particularly in that price range.”

It’s not all bad news for Shed, though, with Mackie very much looking forward to the first script from the production company’s Rock Rivals, which she describes as:

“really promising”

But should Bad Girls really be under the threat of the axeman’s gaze? It’s true the prison-based drama’s ratings have not been up the highs of the 2001 series’ average of 8.6 million, with the current series averaging 4.6 million But, in current ITV terms, that’s huge, and it is winning the time slot. But on the other hand, it’s been around since 1999, and that’s a good old run in this day and age. Perhaps it’s time to retire gracefully and go straight after the forthcoming Christmas episode.
But for Shed, that wouldn’t be the ideal scenario. The independent currently has a second series of Waterloo Road in production for the BBC, and with an uncertain future for Bad Girls, Rock Rivals in development and Zoe Lucker military vehicle, Bombshell, sitting unaired in the archives, they’re definitely not at peak output. And that’s a shame – for a time, Shed was the only independent providing sparkly, vibrant drama for ITV. It was glitzy and a bit tawdry in places, but at least it didn’t have “heart” in the title.
And what of these “choices” Laura Mackie refers to? The rest of the email discusses the merits of upcoming drama pilot, The Outsiders, starring Nigel Harman, to which Mackie responds:

“Outsiders looks very glossy, with well-executed action sequences, very photogenic leads and hopefully will appeal to the audience who enjoy Hustle. It’s a bit hokey and doesn’t deliver quite the tongue in cheek ‘Persuaders’ type humour that we’d hoped for and if we go to series then we need to push for wittier, more knowing scripts.”

So, hedging bets across the board there. I could write all sorts into this statement (considering what TV Today has already written about The Outsiders), but in all probability, this is just the kind of discussion that top TV execs must have every single day about upcoming projects. It’s good to see that blind faith doesn’t rule the roost at ITV, and a realistic approach is being taken to development.
However, Mackie does feel that, as far as the critics go, they’ll be:

“a bit sniffy”.

Erm… She might just have me banged to rights on that one.
Read the email in full here.

Many thx for posting that, v interesting. I'm no network exec but I don't get the logic of axing a show that's winning its time-slot. Esp given the difficulties of scheduling for BG this year. £150 subscription to see the full email?! Argh.

Viewing comparisons with 5, 6, 7 or even 4 years ago are a bit misleading imo

BG used to be shown March April May or April May June into July .
August is the worst month for viewers as a large proportion of Brits are away on holiday ..why did ITV move BG to the later months?
Also, over the last 2 or 3 years especially, there has been a huge increase in Satellite, Cable and Freeview digital viewing so all viewing figures are down...the viewers being spread more thinly over scores more channels.

If, as Eileen says, BG is still pulling in a higher proportion of younger viewers then the advertisers who target them should still be happy?

FW bit the dust after 5 series . Bombshell still hasn't been shown here in the UK and it is thanks to Campgrrls that l got to see it ..Waterloo Road on the BBC was good and has been commissioned for a second series .

Don't like the sound of the X factor [can't stand crud shows like that] and FW cross..will probably give it a miss.

Whatever happened to that show they were developing for BBC Scotland? That actually sounded good. I'm with Cool on this new rock star show....

Wish Shed'd take a risk again ,as they did when BG was created, and write something 'gritty and hardhitting'....the OTT stuff is entertaining but the darker stuff is more memorable.

I completely agree with you. I've found Waterloo Road to be more in the hard-hitting category (with it's soapy aspects of course), but I'd like their new show to be that way as well.

I am open to correction but the last 2 weeks figures are 4.7 million and 4.6 million - I cribbed this off BGOL. This might coincide with the fact that it was in competition with a police drama series called Inspector Lindley which had finished before the last 2 figures I quoted. What seems strange that the whole thing was started by a misdirected E mail of internal deliberations which either has a hidden agenda or else was incredibly stupid.

Is it just me or is this guy scooping up a lot of stock?

ETA: It looks like whatever's going on with BG is perhaps a smaller indicator of ITV panicking. This guy, de Mol, presumably wants to be in a position to snap up any companies that peel off from a sinking ship, maybe?

Also: my math could be iffy but far as I can tell de Mol's investment in Shed is worth about £100mil. In the last month.

-----
Guardian, uk

De Mol ups stake in Bad Girls firm
Tuesday August 22 2006
Chris Tryhorn

Dutch Big Brother creator John de Mol has bought a further 525,000 shares in Shed Productions, the firm behind ITV1's Bad Girls, raising his stake to 7.2%.

-------

Thursday August 17 2006
Leigh Holmwood

Dutch Big Brother creator John de Mol has bought a further 300,000 shares in Shed Productions, the firm behind ITV1's Bad Girls, raising his stake to 6.3%

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http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:pgw1n9...s&ct=clnk&cd=14

Also: Front page, August 4 2006
Old media feels the pinch…

The severe structural challenges facing Britain’s best known media properties are really starting to bite. Even with good viewership ratings, ITV would be having difficulty stemming the flight of advertisers from linear TV, but the company has just notched up its worst prime time audiences in its history and the decline looks terminal for Charles Allen’s stewardship.

Here are the full articles, for those who don't feel like registering:

De Mol opens Shed door

Jason Deans
Wednesday August 2, 2006
MediaGuardian.co.uk

Big Brother creator John de Mol has taken a stake in a second UK independent producer, buying a 3.1% holding in Shed, the firm behind Bad Girls.

Mr de Mol, who already owns 11% of another AIM-listed independent, Wife Swap producer RDF Media, bought the stake through his investment company, Talpa Beheer.

He has bought just over 1.8m Shed shares, which were trading at 121p on AIM this morning.

Mr de Mol made his fortune in 2000, when he sold his Dutch production company, Endemol, to Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica.

Since leaving Endemol, which he co-founded in 1994, Mr de Mol has bought stakes in UK producers Television Corporation - which he later swapped for shares in new owner Tinopolis - RDF and now Shed.

He has also backed a new Dutch television channel, Talpa TV, which launched last year.



She's back - and not a moment too soon for ITV

The final Prime Suspect will lead the ITV autumn fightback but Andy Harries, head of drama production, says the channel has to make up for 10 years of bad decisions

Maggie Brown
Monday August 21, 2006
The Guardian


"It is clear that ITV has lost its way. The key to it is that it has lost its focus on programming . . . I'm not angry, I am disappointed that the channel is not as good as it should be." These are the remarkably frank words of Andy Harries, 52, the controller of drama, comedy and films for ITV Productions.
We meet as uncertainty swirls around the choice of successor to departing chief executive Charles Allen. Who will be the next person to set the tone for the channel and pick the executive cadre for the entire company?

On the face of it, Harries is up there with Melvyn Bragg, untouchable, the force behind so much that has been valued and valuable on ITV - from Cold Feet to Dr Zhivago, which cast Keira Knightley as Lara and sold around the world. However, like many within ITV, he is considering his options.

Harries is tasked with wooing back mainstream viewers after a terrible summer, with a line-up studded with top-class yet familiar drama. These include a refreshingly modern-looking Cracker, revived after 10 years, and Helen Mirren's final bow as an alcoholic DC Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect 7. His department's other autumn ITV offerings include the third series of Life Begins, starring Caroline Quentin, and the return of Vincent, with Ray Winstone.

When asked to pinpoint why ITV is haemorrhaging viewers, his observations are equally candid. Allen, he remarks, was "well-intentioned, but the difficulty was the business became more important than the channels".

He illustrates the Allen era lack of focus on ITV1 this way. "If you make a two-hour drama for ITV, the actual running time is 94 minutes, for Channel 4 it is 101 minutes, that's seven more minutes," he says. "It's not about more or less advertising, it is largely promotions clutter. On Channel 4 the drama plays better.

"Don't you think that the ABs [upmarket viewers] have stopped watching ITV because it has become unwatchable? Hundreds of people tell me this. There is too much clutter, and it is putting people off. ITV is so unfashionable. It doesn't have to be like Channel 4, but it should be modern. It looks like a bargain basement."

Allen presided over the move of the news to 10.30pm in 2001, which Harries says created great openings for BBC drama and terrible problems for ITV creatives, because they had to make shows that ran from 9pm to 10.30pm. "They wanted drama to run for 90 minutes. That's a very uncomfortable slot, writers find it very difficult to write for it. It's a five-act structure instead of three," he explains.

"I was very vocal about getting it back to an hour [a decision made this year]. Good shows - Murder City, Vincent, Island at War - all suffered, and this may have been a factor in some not being recommissioned."

In addition, he thinks the ITV Network Centre, which picks the shows, lacked direction, with drama catering too much for older women."Every broadcaster makes mistakes. But in the past five years ITV's compounded mistakes have added up. Drama has not delivered as well as it should or could do," he says.

He owns up to his fair share of flops. "I don't think our drama is big enough, or must-watch enough. We've had too many series, and we have lacked conviction."

The success of ITV's Doc Martin hardly balances against the big BBC hits, such as Doctor Who, Bleak House and Life on Mars, and Harries is grudgingly impressed by Hotel Babylon. In fact, the rival channel's run of great shows seemed to bang the nails in the coffin for ITV drama. When asked about the outgoing controller of ITV network drama, with whom he has worked for nearly a decade, Harries says: "Nick Elliott doesn't work in isolation, but within a framework. There's been a deep complacency, combined with arrogance. ITV has been caught napping big time."

And there are other creative legacies from Allen's era that irk Harries - particularly the decision to drop the historic ITV brands after the merger of Granada and Carlton. "That was short-sighted," he says, mourning the loss of the Granada tag. "Fifty years of quality - a tradition. I argued against renaming it ITV Productions - it's very disappointing to me that [the new] Cracker is the first not to have a Granada logo on it. In a modern ITV we should be able to maintain certain labels and smaller, autonomous units."

Another sore point is the rundown of Granada's HQ in Manchester. "A lot of mistakes were made, by a whole series of poor middle managers, over the last 10 to 15 years, who did not understand the potential of the place. They've been caught napping, just as there is a big shift towards regional production. In the heart of Granada's old building are independents, such as Red, filling the programme vacuum, and they make lots of money. It is mad isn't it? Absolutely mad! ITV is like Marks & Spencer, a victim of so many bad decisions over the years."

He points to the Yorkshire television base, home of Emmerdale, The Royal, Heartbeat and David Jason vehicles. "It seems to me they should be looking at grouping Manchester and Yorkshire into a dynamic, low-cost, northern-based drama company, a Coronation Street-Emmerdale axis. It could be a 'Shed of the north', " he says, referring to the producers of Bad Girls and Footballers' Wives.

The good news is that Harries believes that the refreshed network commissioning team has as good a chance as any of turning around the channel's fortunes, with Laura Mackie from the BBC running drama - though he has a combative relationship with the overall director of television, Simon Shaps.

Another issue for Harries is that the list of his drama for ITV is deceptive, as his production unit makes and sells to other channels. Some would say ITV has turned down some gems. "A lot of my stuff is going elsewhere," he admits. Channel 4 is taking Longford, a follow-up to See No Evil: The Moors Murders, because ITV did not want it. The Street, Jimmy McGovern's drama series, is now in production for a second series for BBC1. Perhaps it would have suited the new-look ITV.

But at least Harries has managed to get McGovern to revive Cracker for ITV and may well cajole another series out of him. "I hope I will be part of a very strong re-emergence of ITV drama. But no one is sure where it is at the moment, it can only re-emerge with new shows."

On a happier note, Harries is behind that rare event, an ITV-made cinema film, whose £8m cost is shared between ITV and Pathe. This is The Queen, which purports to tell the story of the week of Diana's death,and will feature in the New York and Venice Film Festivals. Directed by Stephen Frears, written by Peter Morgan, with Mirren in the title role, it brings together the team behind The Deal, another Harries project, with the star of Prime Suspect. Unlike The Deal, which went to Channel 4, The Queen will be shown on ITV. "I fought hard to get ITV to take the Queen film," he says. "But movies are not on its radar."

Rumours are rife that Harries will leave ITV Productions. Much probably depends on how, in the new regime, his division is left free to make and sell programmes outside ITV, and of how budget cuts bite. When asked if he plans to leave, he laughs: "I can't possibly talk to you about that. I shall be hung, drawn and quartered."

And what about the future? "All of my success is down to long-term relationships with writers, once you have a creative partnership that is how good things come out. The television market here is developing into centres of excellence, I would like to be a centre of excellence for serious drama, single dramas and movies."

Ok, so I got a bug up abt privacy! At least I found them!! ;p

What I thought interesting abt the longer ITV-related article was the quote refering to Shed; seemed to me to imply they're basically well thought of, at least enough to act as paradigm for this new metaphor/model H is talking abt. Thanks for posting this. --e

Ekny,


I'm not sure if he really wants to sell parts off. Last year he started his own tv network and earlier this year he said he wanted to start another one in a year or so. And that this tv network would traget homosexual. Wheter that is true, i don't know. Wheter the new tv network will happen, who knows.

But with buying into shed, wouldn't he also buy the rights to air Bad Girl and all the others shows Shed has created so far? Perhaps that is his intention, since his current network isn't doing too good.



Jules

Very interesting bit of speculation, Jules, thanks for those news bits--I'd never heard of the guy as stocks & the like aren't my thing, just found this by accident while looking for more about The Memo. But they did happen to overlap at an interesting time. --e

(ps--Shed's already negotiated deals for FW & BG in the US, so I'd think those wouldn't be effected.)

He is one of the mastermind behind shows like Big Brother.


And thanks for posting the articel. I'l check out his (dutch) site a little incase new information gets released.

k so i was on the bg online board and i found a link for a petition to keep bad girls going. thought some of you might be interested.


bgpetition

A friend kindly sent this along, it's the ITV Memo.

(This was on Digitalspy.)

-------


From: Simon Shaps
To: Laura Mackie
Sent: Mon Aug 14 21:14:55 2006
Subject: Outsiders

Laura

What is the consensus on [Mersey Television pilot] The Outsiders?

Should we also be planning to announce Bad Girls comes to an end this series. It was helpful to prepare the ground with Shed when we axed Footballers Wives.

S

--------------------------

From: Laura Mackie
To: Simon Shaps
Sent: 14 August 2006 21:51
Subject: Re: Outsiders

Outsiders looks very glossy, with well-executed action sequences, very photogenic leads and hopefully will appeal to the audience who enjoy Hustle. It's a bit hokey and doesn't deliver quite the tongue in cheek 'Persuaders' type humour that we'd hoped for and if we go to series then we need to push for wittier, more knowing scripts.

Suspect it will get a decent audience but the critics will be a bit sniffy. We don't need to make a decision on commissioning a series until it goes out as actors are optioned until November. Suggest we discuss once you've had a look and we can consider what else we have coming through.

Nick [Elliott] and I discussed Bad Girls and, again, think it comes down to what choices we have, particularly in that price range. Shed are on track to deliver Rock Rivals script next month which sounds really promising.

I'm sure they're not seeing this as a replacement for Bad Girls though so agree we need to take a view on how to manage their expectations.

Laura

---------------------

From: Laura Mackie
Sent: 15 August 2006 09:25
To: X
Subject: FW: Outsiders

Nick

Simon sent me this email last night about Outsiders - suspect he didn't realise you were back. This is his email and my reply.

Sounds like he's got it in for Bad Girls!

L

Also interested to see ITV axed FW, at least according to this memo: Shed claimed the show had had its run & they were pulling the plug. Perhaps that's an example of how These Things are supposed to work when they 'work' at all.

12.30pm
ITV calls time on Bad Girls


Leigh Holmwood
Thursday October 26, 2006
MediaGuardian.co.uk

ITV has confirmed it is axing prison drama Bad Girls, a move which this morning saw nearly 9% wiped off the share price of the show's producer Shed Productions.

ITV confirmed it would not commission a ninth series of the drama set in a female prison in a bid to open up the slot to fresh new shows. The drama's ratings have dropped from an average of 8.6m in 2001 to 4.7m this year.

The news saw Aim-listed Shed's share price plunge by 8.6% to 112p at midday - down 10.63p on last night's closing price.

The managing director of Shed, Eileen Gallagher, said the company had been expecting the news following a leaked email in August between the ITV director of television, Simon Shaps, and the controller of drama, Laura Mackie, in which they discussed dropping the show.

"It seems to have been a relatively marginal decision but we respect it," said Ms Gallagher. "ITV wants to move on and they want us to do new things for them. It is sad for us as it was our first drama but we have to move on to the next thing."

She denied Shed had looked into taking legal action against ITV over the leaked email, saying "we have all done these things before".

The news follows the confirmation in May that Shed's other main ITV drama Footballers Wives was also being dropped.

However, Shed is currently working on a new drama series, Rock Rivals, for ITV as well as a 90-minute drama set in the world of dog shows, Catwalk Dogs, written by Men Behaving Badly creator Simon Nye.

Ms Gallagher said there was still a chance Bad Girls could find another home on a rival UK broadcaster.

"It is still a very high-performing series for a young audience," she said. "Other broadcasters know it is no longer on ITV so it would be up to them to contact us about it."

She added the company was still making a pilot for an American version of Bad Girls for the FX network in the US while other deals for local versions in South America are also on the table.

I can't say I'm surprised. But what other network would pick it up? Channel 4? Or that satellite channel that's been buying all the sports events? This kind of thing basically never happens in the US, so it's hard for me to fathom.

I had no idea that Shed was involved in the American version of BG. Are they actively producing it? Or did they just license the rights to another production company?

I heard outlines were being worked on--presumably at FX--but it's heavy into the Rumor end of things, insofar as I can't quote my source or anything, sorry.

Thanks for posting the article EKNY...I have The Guardian delivered but hadn't had time to read it yet.

Arghhhh the end of an era.

Would be great if,say, C4 or C5 picked up BG..but as you say Abzug it's pretty much unheard of. l would imagine other channels have all their schedules planned already and shows commissioned.

l bet the party will be a hoot...especially if they gather up as many former cast members as they can !!!

COOL B)

On www.afterellen.com, they reported that "Bad Girls" was not renewed for a ninth season. The story they link to is here:

http://www.metro.co.uk/fame/article.html?i...age_id=7&in_a_s

It's bad news, though certainly the quality of the show had dropped over the years, maybe to the point of hurting the credibility of the first few seasons.

Of course, this also opens up, at least briefly, the opportunity for a Nikki/Helen reunion (if Simone/Mandana/creators came together on it), which might be easier without the possibility of conflicts with the existing show. Publicity and fan support during the show's ending might help make that a reality.

And this should give Simone/Mandana the chance (and a reason) to reminisce about the show ... if only any of the broadsheets in Britain care enough to cover the story.

So ... bad news mixed with some good, I think.

It would be great if there were a Nikki Helen reunion though this would need to be seen to be believed.

There is an irony in axing Bad Girls as this coincides with a time when British prisons are bursting at the seams and the Home Office wavers between vague intentions to 'deal with the crisis' and not being seen in the right wing media as 'soft on crime.'

There is a perennial need for quality drama as we need something to inspire, grab the imaginations and engage the intellect. I do not need visual wallpaper which makes me feel that I am not getting my monery's worth from paying my TV licence, certainly in summer when TV is especially dire. Watever the faults in BG, they are as nothing to what really is trash TV. I hope also that this does not mean the end of TV prison dramas as there is no shortage of hospital dramas or police dramas.

Ok
:cry2 :cry2 :cry2
Ive found several article confirming bad girls is not being renewed. Though nothing has been written about it on the BG website or Shed productions website.

the independent

yahoo news

bbc news

Terrible news, of course. We were talking about it over here last week:
http://z4.invisionfree.com/Nikki_and_Helen...topic=644&st=30

Moderator's note: I am merging another new thread called "It's All Over" by BGep1,2,&3 into this one, those 2 posts now come before this one. (You can't control how threads merge, it's automatic by date.) --ek

Ditto the "Season 9?" thread, as below.

Hi. Sorry, I haven't been on the forum for a while - moved and very busy - but, has anyone heard if there will be a Bad Girls, Series 9 ?

Nope.
http://z4.invisionfree.com/Nikki_and_Helen...topic=644&st=30

i read today in the inside soaps that bad girls is being axed and that there will only b one christmas specail and thats it awwwwwww!!!!!!!

This is the Metro UK article Suchfun made reference to a few weeks ago (nice 'reporting', with photo of the show's 'current' star Claire King):