“And I am telling you…I’m not going!”

In quite the plot twist, MTV have announced that – despite earlier reports – TRL is not being canceled. Quite the contrary. The network say it’s actually being expanded.

Full story below…

In a statement to THR, MTV president Chris McCarthy says not only will Total Request Live return on April 9th as planned – it’s being paired with day and nighttime companion segments.

Joining the afternoon main show will be PM broadcast ‘Total Request Late-Night’ – which has quietly been piloted since the start of the year. Per the network, this version loosely serves as an after-show for key programming.

This summer will also see the launch of Total Request A.M. This edition will serve as a curated Spotify list of sorts and function as a “pure music play” – without commercials — and feature a more traditional video countdown as well as music performances.

On the performance of TRL’s revival thus far, McCarthy said:

“It’s thriving. We’re expanding the franchise and will have three TRLs by summer.

TRL has delivered incredible growth on linear, and we’ve experienced two to three times the growth in our video streams, and TRL is big piece of it — and that’s why we’re expanding it; we want more.”

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On the one hand, we admire the commitment to growing the brand. Indeed, MTV are clearly getting creative with their approach to making the letters TRL mean something to a target audience accustomed to a totally different means of music consumption.

However…

All this twisting and turning makes one wonder why all of this couldn’t just be consolidated into one slay show? After all, wasn’t that the point of the initial reboot in the first place?

In any case…

Your thoughts?