BBC One ends The Kennedys
- Emma Kennedy's auto-biographical sitcom will not return for a second series
- The popular sitcom was deemed to not have performed well enough in its timeslot
- BBC Two do not have any schedule slots in which to place a new series
The Kennedys will not be returning to the BBC for a second series, it has been confirmed.
Writer Emma Kennedy confirmed the news on her blog, writing: "BBC One 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."
Starring Katherine Parkinson and Dan Skinner as married couple Brenda and Tony Kennedy, with Lucy Hutchinson as the young Emma.
Inspired by Kennedy's best-selling memoir The Tent, The Bucket and Me, the 6-part autobiographical sitcom was broadcast in October and November 2015.
Set in the 1970s, the series averaged 1.99 million viewers each week in overnight ratings alone. It also proved to be a critical and popular hit on social media, with a Radio Times vote in December seeing it beat off all other competition to be named Radio Times Comedy Show Champion 2015.
In her blog post, Kennedy explains: "In terms of comedies on other channels we more than held our own but that's not how ratings work. To be deemed successful you have to maintain or exceed the ratings average for your timeslot on your channel.
"Inherited figures are also taken into consideration and we were inheriting a rating figure of around 3.5 from HIGNFY. It's also worth noting that Graham Norton rates at around 3.5 so we were, week on week, losing the channel over a million viewers at 9.30."
In the post, she explains in detail the considerations made by both BBC One and the show's creative team that have lead to the decision, and adds: "There was a commercial incentive for BBC Two to take us but they've got no available slots."