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Reelz reels in 'The Kennedys'

"The Kennedys," the miniseries starring Greg Kinnear as JFK and Katie Holmes as Jackie-not-yet-O that the History Channel first ordered and then dumped amid controversy, has found a home on cable's ReelzChannel, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

"The Kennedys," the miniseries starring Greg Kinnear as JFK and Katie Holmes as Jackie-not-yet-O that the History Channel first ordered and then dumped amid controversy, has found a home on cable's ReelzChannel, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The eight-part mini will launch on Reelz April 3 with two back-to-back episodes, running the rest in the days that follow.

According to the Reporter, it will be the first original scripted programming for Reelz, which is in 60 million homes and appears to be available in the city through Dish Network, DirecTV or Verizon FIOS and on Comcast Garden State (Channel 161) for South Jersey subscribers.

Pressure from the Kennedy family has been blamed in reports for History's decision to pass on the well-publicized project, whose producers include Joel Surnow ("24"), one of Hollywood's more open conservatives, who's been shopping it around ever since.

A few weeks ago, Showtime's new entertainment president, David Nevins, confirmed that he'd been approached and had passed.

"I looked seriously at it, and I thought it was well-acted, well-made, and very watchable. And just what it really came down to is it didn't really feel Showtime. It didn't really feel, to me, premium cable," he told reporters at the Television Critics Association's winter meetings.

But what, I asked him, about the basic cable channel that originally commissioned it? Was it a bad fit for History?

"I'm not going to comment on History Channel, their decisions, or anybody else. I thought it was well-done," Nevins said.