If you haven’t heard or visited Tumblr ever, nostalgia is all the rave these days, so it’s no surprise that part of MTV’s plan to revitalize their brand includes a ton of reaching back to their heydays. In an interview with The New York Times, MTV’s president Chris McCarthy quietly announced one of MTV’s flagship shows Total Request Live would be relaunching this October as part of the network’s planned revamp.
In the interview, McCarthy explains that he views a Times Square studio a “centerpiece” of a reinvention and comeback of the MTV brand. The changes are part of “strategic pivot” by MTV’s parent company Viacom, as they look to focus on six core cable networks. McCarthy said other changes were in store as well, like making the award categories at the MTV Movie Awards gender neutral and renaming the Moonman award the Moon Person because, according to McCarthy “Why should it be a man? It could be a man, it could be a woman, it could be transgender, it could be nonconformist.”
TRL is, of course, one of the most renown shows in the network’s history, previously hosted by the likes of Carson Daly, Sway, Lala, Dave Holmes and many more. The original TRL allowed viewers to vote on a top 10 daily, hosted the biggest stars of the day from all genres of music, and grew to be an essential stop for any artist looking to be seen and heard.
The new TRL is set to be a daily, hour-long show that could grow to be two or three hours at some point. There will be five hosts, including social media star DC Young Fly, a rapper and comedian, along with Erik Zachary, a Chicago radio host.
