MTV has recently announced that it will put Total Request Live (TRL) on indefinite hiatus this November. As sad as I am to say goodbye to a show I haven’t watched since I was about 14, it’s 2008, and the program deserves to be put to sleep.
TRL has been the stage for not only budding celebrities and “buzzworthy” videos, but also for movie promos and falling stars’ meltdowns. In 2001, Mariah Carey scared the pants off of host, Carson Daly, when she ran, completely unannounced, across the TRL stage in her pajamas. Just days later, the singer checked herself into rehab for extreme exhaustion.
Backstreet Boys perform on TRL on Spring Break
But let’s be honest. Just as Carson moved on, so should the MTV airwaves. And unfortunately, the death of the show is inversely related to the rise of the Internet. Once a Mecca for sharing videos and new information in the realm of Hollywood and New York City, TRL has been utterly overtaken by phenomena like YouTube, iTunes and even bloggers. Shame on me.
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Running for about a decade, Total Request Live has had a great run. It’s gone through “Wanna Be a VJ” contests, jetted down to Cancun for Spring Break and crowded the streets of midtown Manhattan with screaming girls trying to meet LFO. The show will indeed go down in entertainment history as a vehicle that enhanced not only the careers of its guests, but the pop cultural education of its viewers.
I salute you, Total Request Live. And the torch you pass will not be dropped.