Victoria’s Secret is going to rehab and hopefully something new and wonderful will be born on the watch of former president of Tory Burch John Mehas.

The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show kissed network television ‘goodbye’ Friday, announcing that it will no longer air on network television after 22 years years for the fashion show, and almost two decades on television.

The announcement was made in a Friday memo to the chain’s associates from Leslie Wexner, the chief executive of Victoria’s Secret’s parent company, L Brands. Mr. Wexner said that the company had been “taking a fresh look at every aspect of our business” in the past few months, and noted that the brand “must evolve and change to grow.”

“With that in mind, we have decided to re-think the traditional Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show,” he wrote. “Going forward we don’t believe network television is the right fit.” He said the company would develop “a new kind of event” on different platforms in the future, though he gave no further details.

Viewers of the fashion show have totally plummeted from 9.7 million viewers in 2013 to 3.3 million viewers in 2018. Reality is that the VS Fashion Show viewship peaked in 2001 at 12.4 million. In the months after Sept. 11 we all needed a lift, and it was the first time the show was broadcast on network TV.

When a show never again hits its debut #s — in almost 20 years — one must ask if all is well in VS brand land. Or it the VS Fashion Show the business card of the show’s producers? And the ebullient models who are overjoyed to be there?

In reality, the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show - the ‘camp’ spectacle that has come to represent the brand — which is NO Gucci for shareholders with its plunging stock price— was drowning in low ratings of about 7 million viewers in 2006-2007. Mega talent and even larger over-the-top expenditures for the production lifted the viewers to 10.4 million in 2011. Increasingly the demographic was also NOT the core VS customer.

It’s difficult to watch a brand that I helped build be so out of touch with women generally and younger women in particular. Let’s hope VS is not Humpty Dumpty. Am sending all my goddess energy to VS CEO John Mehas and his team, with high hopes that they can give this aging, out-of-touch showhorse a new set of great legs. ~ Anne