MTV is Bringing Back TRL
How to rescue MTV from creeping irrelevance?
Bring back a classic. The New York Times reports that MTV will soon bring back “Total Request Live,” its flagship afternoon show that ran from 1998 through 2008 and launched the career of Carson Daly.
Ratings at MTV have fallen over the past five years, and shares of its parent company, Viacom have sunken dramatically. President Chris McCarthy is engineering a makeover of the network that he hopes will turn things around for a company that once meant everything in youth culture.
The hour-long show will return in October and will be co-hosted by five relative unknowns including rapper/comedian DC Young Fly and Chicago radio host Erik Zachary.
Most significant here is the return of music videos to MTV’s main channel programming. I haven’t tuned into MTV in years, but a quick perusal of their schedule this week lists nothing but reality shows: 16 and Pregnant, Catfish, Jersey Shore and the like. I’d have to imagine the charts will be dominated by pop and the show won’t be of much interest to anyone reading this. But still… music coming back to Music Television… that’s cool, I guess?
