Sid, Cassie, Tony and Maxxie are all to make way for new kids on the block. Photograph: Channel 4
It used to be so easy to sneer at nationwide talent searches. Logical, even. Before Girls Aloud or Leona Lewis, you could dismiss reality pop as destroying the music business, ill-aware that it just might just save it. Pre-Lee Mead you could pretend it was a daft youth trend because at least your mother wasn't obsessed with him and the bloody prime minister hadn't waded in saying it was good for citizenship.
And before Kevin Spacey's jealous intervention this week (hilariously over-reported on all the BBC's news services out of their desperation to keep their hands clean) you could still cling onto an idea of hating it all based on no rationale whatsoever anymore. And who wouldn't choose to disagree with Kevin Spacey?
But trust Skins to finally push the question of reality talent search shows back round on itself. Last week they announced a stunt that on the face of it sounded so daft that it could only be the best idea ever. They were dumping their entire cast! Sid, Cassie, Tony, Maxxie, every brilliant one of them. Not as a publicity-seeking reset, but a totally organic decision based on the logic that if they hope to keep a series about sixth-formers going for more than two seasons, they were going to have to fill it with fresh sixth-formers come series three. The rational swines.
Now they've gone one further in prejudice-busting innovation. This week saw the announcement of another Skins tour - the latest in a popular run of promotional parties starring a bunch of cool and competent bands like Crystal Castles, the Teenagers, We Smoke Fags, the Joy Formidable, the Rascals and Cut Off Your Hands.
This time, your ticket to the party will include a short script which can be used to audition for a leading role in series three - there and then. "We've been hunting for identical twin girls and a Polish guy through SkinsLife.com," says executive producer Bryan Eisley. "We're now looking for all sorts of people for series three - from extras all the way up to lead roles."
OK, so there's no phone-vote or weekly eliminations or skate-offs involved, but hasn't our most credible homegrown drama just gone completely down the route of X-Factor and (cough) I'd Do Anything?
Shudder as you will at first, but this makes perfect sense. If you're looking to cast a series full of cool, wasted teenagers, you're far better starting a party riddled with actual cool, wasted teenagers than the Sylvia Young Theatre School. Wouldn't you agree?
