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'Kennedys' producer discusses show axe

Sat Mar 19, 2011 7:35 pm

The executive producer of controversial miniseries The Kennedys has spoken out about History's decision not to air the show, suggesting that the decision was a matter of "discrimination".

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In January, the network announced that they would no longer be airing the eight-part miniseries, which stars Katie Holmes as Jackie Kennedy, claiming that it was not the right fit for the History brand.

However, producer Joel Surnow said that he feels that the decision was made because of a political agenda, rather than the reasons originally stated by the company.

"It really felt like discrimination to me at the end of the day," Surnow told Entertainment Weekly. "This wasn't about [the Kennedy family], these are the people on the corporate board above the History channel.

"The Kennedys have very little to do with this, they can't cancel a miniseries," he continued. "The only people who can cancel it are the people at the highest corporate levels.

"It's when the people who are inside our business, the ones making decisions who bend to that and cave to that, even when there is nothing valid about the objections being levelled against us, you have to start thinking about discrimination and censorship."

Surnow insisted that The Kennedys was never supposed to be a political show, and that it was simply created to tell an interesting family story.

The Reelz Channel recently picked up The Kennedys, which will now premiere worldwide on April 3.
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