The holiday season will have to survive without its usual dose of titillation.
L Brands confirmed Thursday that its annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, which usually airs each year around Thanksgiving, will not make its annual glittery return for 2019. The announcement didn't come as much of a surprise; insiders have long indicated that show's future was looking bleak.
“We will be communicating to customers, but nothing similar in magnitude to the fashion show,” L Brands CFO Stuart Burgdoerfer said, per Fortune. He also alluded to a plan to "evolve the messaging" of Victoria's Secret, which has long been synonymous with voluptuous supermodels and plenty of pink.
The 2018 VS Fashion Show pulled in the lowest ratings in the program's history, which didn't do much to improve the brand's already-suffering image after various controversies and PR mishaps.
“The industry has just changed overall," an insider told the New York Post, suggesting that the axing of this year's show could be a permanent decision: "I could see the Angels going away.”
But Burgdoerfer seemingly maintained that the decision was more financial than cultural.
"Did we see specific material impact in terms of a short-term sales response to the airing of the fashion show? As a general matter, the answer to that question is no," he reportedly said.
Although the VS Fashion definitely isn't in the cards for in 2019, it's unclear whether the company will consider re-launching it, perhaps in a re-imagined form, in the future.
