14 DAY TRIAL // Over the weekend, History Channel announced that it wouldn’t be airing the much-hyped 8-part mini-series / documentary “The Kennedys” in spring as scheduled, because it wasn’t historically accurate enough for the network. THR says the real Kennedys played a part in the cancelation.
Since the official announcement on why the network has pulled the plug on the show, speculation has been running rampant on what may have been behind such a tough call.
The wildest theories even said that Katie Holmes was responsible for the cancelation since she’s hexed, box office poison and literally killed the project in the bud.
The Hollywood Reporter says the causes are far more mundane than that: the Kennedys did not want to have the show on air because of certain aspects in the portrayal of their family.
Consequently, they pressured History into canceling it and are probably right now pressuring the other networks into turning down offers to purchase it. As it is, “The Kennedys” may never air on TV in the US.
“AETN canceled plans to broadcast the controversial miniseries amid intense behind-the-scenes pressure from the Kennedy family (particularly Caroline Kennedy and Maria Shriver), whose members had lobbied AETN execs and board members including Disney’s Anne Sweeney and NBC Universal’s Jeff Zucker and Jeff Gaspin to kill the project since it was announced in December 2009,” THR writes.
“Producers Muse Entertainment and Asylum Entertainment are now free to shop the project to another US network, but the same concerns that kept the project off History might make finding a new buyer more difficult,” says the same report.
So far, Starz and FX are believed to have already turned down offer to pick it up for release, also because of pressure from certain politic circles. HBO is equally not interested in it, since it’s working on its own Kennedy-themed series.
“The Kennedys” will still air in Canada and the UK this spring, but fans in the US have a DVD release or pay-per-view to hope for at best, THR argues.
Of course, there’s also the chance that interest from the public will convince one of the smaller networks to take a risk for a ratings boost, but that’s a relatively small chance, industry insiders say.
For more on “The Kennedys” cancelation and what are the odds viewers in the US will see it on TV, check out the full THR report here.