RIP TRL

I love the smell of the end of an era in the morning! TRL, aka Total Request Live, one of MTV's last ties to music, ended its ten-year run Sunday night and a healthy handful of stars were on hand to beat the dead horse.

Carson Daly was there, of course. Daly rose to fame on the show, drawing comparisons to Dick Clark, and left in 2003 to host his own talk show, Last Call with Carson Daly. Other guests at the finale included 50 Cent, Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Kid Rock, Nelly, Ludacris, Snoop Dogg, and, of course, P Diddy, who made his 38th appearance on the show.

I started watching TRL in its original incarnation, MTV Live, back in 1997. At that time, it was hosted by Toby Amies and, I think, Ananda Lewis. I had a pretty severe crush on Toby. I started watching the show because I was killing time between high school and college and working a really shitty waitressing job and living at my mom's. I had a few weekdays off, during which I would sleep in, then start watching Comedy Central and MTV all. damn. day. That's how I originally got into The Daily Show back when Craig Kilborn hosted. I AM MORE OLD SKOOL THAN YOU.

MTV Live had a pretty steady stream of really interesting guests, some of whom would stop by just to chat even if they didn't have stuff to promote. Once MTV Live meshed with Total Request, which Daly was hosting, I started to lose interest. Then the teenage in-studio audience really stepped it up with the screaming and general losing of their shit and, I don't know, some kind or hormonal switch went off and I said, "I can't watch this shit anymore."

MTV states that viewership has gone way down and cites YouTube and social media sites. Because, you know, everything's OUR fault, from the demise of the music industry to Sarah Palin's general failure at politics and life and whatnot.

NY Times

MTV

Comments

[Liana]

Ooh thank you for that Sarah Palin/Rachel Maddow link! Love! ;)

[MamaKaren]

Just for the record, I have never blogged from my mother's basement. (I have blogged in my pajamas, though.) And my defection from being an MTV viewer predated my blogging/social networking by a number of years.

[sassystitcher]

The way I feel about TRL at this point may be best summed up by this link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081117/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_new_word :)

[Kathy]

I started watching TRL in its original incarnation, MTV Live, back in 1997.

Wasn't there even an earlier version? Another request show? For whatever reason, I want to push MTV Live back even further, like '90-'91.

[danish]

Wasn't it 1-800-Dial-MTV? I think that's what I watched in high school. I am a few years older that you, Kdiddy! :)