MTV Reviving TRL

If you walked through Times Square lately and wondered what that hammering and sawing noise was all about, here’s some exciting news: MTV is bringing back Total Request Live (TRL) this fall. As the New York Times reports, MTV President Chris McCarthy is overseeing the rebirth of the once wildly popular pop culture brand that ran in afternoons from 1998-2008 and helped make Carson Daly a star. The show’s ever-evolving logo is shown here, circa fall 2001.

It’s no secret that MTV in recent years has moved far, far away from its musical roots, choosing instead to dive deep into reality programming (or “hell,” depending on who you speak to). McCarthy says TRL would return in October, once again emanating from a massive second floor studio now under construction overlooking Times Square. The rebooted TRL will initially run an hour a day, and might grow to two to three hours a day as the show develops. The Times says the new show will also feature daily content for Instagram, Snapchat and other social media channels.

While Daly is obviously too busy (and too big) to return as host, the new TRL will roll with five co-hosts, including rapper/comedian DC Young Fly and Erik Zachary, who does nights on iHeartMedia Top 40 WKSC (103.5 Kiss FM)/Chicago. Zachary (pictured), who is a client of Paul Anderson at Workhouse/ICM, will retain his radio gig by remote from New York. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Additional hosts are expected to be announced as MTV remains in negotiations with YouTube personalities, among others.”

Not surprisingly, record labels are already showing a keen interest in this newly rebooted promotional platform — Charlie Walk, President of Republic Records, noted that in recent years MTV had abandoned the music business and that bringing TRL back was a big step in the right direction. “Who’s not going to support a platform that’s covering all of the buckets of social media and cable to allow your artist to go on, play a video, perform a song and to talk about their new music that just got released?” he said. “How do you say no to that? We’re going to give it a shot, a big shot.”