MTV Denies Canceling ‘TRL’, Adds 2 New Shows: ‘Total Request Late-Night’ & ‘Total Request A.M.’

MTV Denies Canceling ‘TRL’, Adds 2 New Shows: ‘Total Request Late-Night’ & ‘Total Request A.M.’

MTV is denying reports that it has canceled Total Request Live. This week, reports surfaced that the reboot of the former Carson Daly music and interview show would not return for another season. However, the network says that contrary to reports, the show will return in April as planned — as well as morning and late-night offshoots. A version of TRL will air three times a day on the linear network starting this summer. A rep says of the show,

It’s thriving. We’re expanding the franchise and will have three TRLs by summer.  (The revival’s October premiere drew just 166,000 live same-day viewers.)

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.

MTV has been piloting an on-air late-night version of the franchise — Total Request Late-Night, which started Feb. 19 and has been airing twice a week at 11 p.m. — and will expand that to four nights a week in the summer.

The half-hour series is currently hosted by radio personality Nessa. Also in the works for the summer is Total Request A.M., which will be a curated Spotify list of sorts and be a “pure music play” — without commercials — and feature a more traditional video countdown as well as music performances.

The afternoon version of TRL, which launched Oct. 2, will still return April 9 as planned as a two-hour block with its roster of rotating hosts and social media stars serving as correspondents.

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