In 1998, American teens welcomed Carson Daly and MTV’s hit show, Total Request Live into their hearts and homes. Later known as TRL, the show would allow audiences to vote for their favorite music videos in the hopes that it would appear at the top of the countdown. As MTV’s third-longest-running program of all time, airing over 2,000 episodes, it’s clear to see how TRL became a cultural phenomenon. A few monumental moments include: the battle of the boy bands–– NSYNC vs The Backstreet Boys, P. Diddy jogging for an entire episode, and every Britney video ever made.
However, all great things must come to an end. With that, TRL aired its finale, three-hour long episode in November 2008 concluding with their last top ten countdown. But as Fuller House and Will & Grace have already taught us, you can’t keep a good showdown. After nearly a decade, TRL is officially coming back with a complete reboot of the original show. Now with more hosts, the integration of social media, and a crop of fresh talent, a whole new generation of teenagers will experience the awesomeness of TRL for themselves.
Top 10 Moments
“I skipped school to go see Korn, I even baked them a cake. I almost got tickets to their show but they gave them away to a girl with a Korn tattoo.” – Enrica, Operations
“I remember wishing I could skip school to go see The Backstreet Boys, but instead rushed home to see that the crowd had shut down Times Square. They had just released “Millennium” and debuted “I Want It That Way.” which proved to be an iconic video and was even mocked by another TRL favorite, Blink 182, in their video for “All The Small Things” – Jenna, Marketing
“When the PlayStation 3 launched, MTV promoted it during what they called, “Gamer’s Week”. I participated in a TRL event where I could win the system for free on launch day if I played it for 24 hours straight. The entire experienced was live-streamed on MTV.com and I was featured on two consecutive episodes of TRL – the first one was hosted by former Ms. USA, Susie Castillo, while the second was hosted by Nick Cannon. I successfully completed the challenge and upon winning, was given a brand new PS3 with a copy of every launch game.” – Jared, Legal“I remember watching the episode where Destiny’s Child announced that they were breaking up and knew it was the end of an era when Beyoncé decided to leave the group. I was really upset! I knew that they would never get back together. ” -Millie, Customer Support“I’ll always remember when Michael Jackson was being interviewedbecause it was right around the time that he was super controversial.” – Matt, Customer Support“Oh definitely when The Backstreet Boys sang “I Want It That Way” live, that song just speaks to my soul. I remember when I was little and jamming out to the Backstreet Boys video at my uncle’s house and my cousin caught me. So embarrassing.” -Mike, Operations “When I saw Outkast performing “Hey Ya” I really loved the song, and the video was so fun that it inspired me to recreate the video for my talent portion of my high school’s Man Pageant.” – Jeremy, Graphic Design“The moment when Tom Green’s “The Bum Bum Song” was voted number one. It was also the day I realized Top 40 held no credibility.” -Dan, Development“My mom and I originally went into the city to see a Broadway show but somehow managed to get tickets to a TRL tapping where 98 Degrees was the special guest. So I ended up hijacking my mom’s day but it was worth it to see Nick Lachey in person. Nick and Jessica forever” -Allie, Trendsetter Marketing“Literally, every episode with Britney. She’s the TRL Queen.” -Nick, Trendsetter Marketing
The new TRL studio will remain in its iconic Times Square studio but freshly expanded. Ed Sheeran and Migos will be the first guests and perform live for the in-studio audience. MTV also put out a Star-studded promo teasing potential guests like Vanessa Hudgens, DJ Khaled, and Young M.A.. Perhaps the biggest difference with the reboot is there’s a whole crew of hosts and correspondents for the show each coming from a social influencer or entertainment background The five new hosts include: Amy Pham, D.C. Young Fly, Erik Zachary, Lawrence Jackson and Tamara Dhia. Plus six social media correspondents: Liza Koshy, Eva Gutowski, Gigi Gorgeous, Gabbie Hanna, Ethan and Grayson Dolan. To make the show fit with a modern audience, the reboot will integrate social and digital content by distributing content on YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Musical.ly.
Original Article Posted on 09/28/2017 by Leann Burns
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