Faced with a new project of reinvention, MTV is looking to its past to predict its future.
The network's iconic Total Request Live show went off the air nine years ago in 2008 after a strong decade-long run.
Now in an effort to pad on to MTV's recent resurgence in prominence as far as ratings are concerned, station president Chris McCarthy has announced the intent to bring back TRL this fall, returning to its famous studio in Times Square.
“MTV at its best — whether it’s news, whether it’s a show, whether it’s a docu-series — is about amplifying young people’s voices," McCarthy tells the New York Times. We put young people on the screen, and we let the world hear their voices. We shouldn’t be writing 6,000-word articles on telling people how to feel.”
Total Request Live was a music countdown show that brought the careers of the likes of Carson Daly and LaLa Anthony to the forefront as network VJs while hosting famous musical acts of the time.
Only time will tell if this reboot will manage to mirror the same successes as its predecessor.