MTV has had a special impact on Gen X as well as Gen Y. Love it or hate it, its diverse programming has attracted viewers across all income, gender, geographical, and education demographics. With more serious programming like True Life, Made, and political coverage in addition to borderline reality fluff like Tila Tequila, The Gauntlet/The Inferno, or My Sweet 16, MTV has shown an affinity and diversity in reality tv.
List of MTV shows can be found here on Wikipedia. While the network has created cult classics like the Tom Green Show, TRL, Rob and Big, Real World, The Osbornes, The Hills, and Punked, the network’s ratings have been trending down over the second half of 2008 (down a whopping 23% to its core 12-34 market). With that in mind the network is planning on unveiling 16 new reality shows in the first 4 months of 2009. While many shows are a couple months away here are my impressions on some I have taken the time to check out.
The New Sunday Night Lineup
– Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory
This show is a lock to to bring in solid ratings. Although viewers will miss the interactions of Rob’s former roommate, Big Black, this is an awesome concept that empowers a proven entertainer and entrepreneur. Rob like a lot of young people has an awesome comedic sense, lack of maturity, and knack for extreme fun. The difference is that he is successful, and this show allows viewers to share in a lifestyle that seems unachievable.
The College Humor Show Only one episode so its hard to tell. I would give it a solid B or B+ thus far. The show portrays the young and funny office place of the The College Humor gang. The ridiculous premises and dialogues seems close to popular show, Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Any show that prides itself on being ridiculous and not having any story carry over from episode to episode is somewhat of a risk of not retaining its audience. However I think the College Humor gang will know how to develop great characters and dialogue that should keep the show a success.
Nitro Circus
This show is money. Travis Pastrana and his group of extreme athletes/doofuses attempting a hoard of ridiculous stunts week in week out. Not sure if Travis and his gang are the most entertaining/enjoyable people to have their own show from a dialogue perspective, but the commitment to overly extreme and dangerous stunts makes it a shoe in to be a hit.
How’s Your News This one is way off the beaten path for a typical show even for MTV. The show follows around a bus of developmentally disabled entertainment/news reporting team across the country. Some of their limitations are very minor, while some are extremely glaring and almost hard to stomach on television as their interactions are often misunderstood or misinterpreted.
Credit the show to getting major access to celebrities like the Governator, John Stamos, Jimmy Kimmel, and many others which gives it a lot more pop. While the show is definitely a novelty, the gang is really going to have to improve in making compelling or comical pieces as I don’t see MTV’s demographic having the patience to stick with this sometime slow moving show. Also it has the worst time slot of all the new shows, giving it another major hurdle in its way for mainstream success.
Random News Shows
TI’s Road to Redemption
Solid show. TI is going to jail in a month after he finishes 1,000 hours of community service. The show follows a supposedly changed TI as he works with disadvantaged youths to keep them from making bad decisions. America in general has a soft spot for this type of programming and rightfully so. Also the fact that this show is airing as he gets closer to his time in jail adds a level of intrigue to the show.
I’ll go out on a limb in saying this one will tank. A bunch of other shows are close behind, with College Life looking like a pretty cool show. Thus far MTV’s ratings have rebounded 13% in January compared to December so its looking like MTV might be moving in the right direction although a lot of that growth might be credited to shows like The City, Bromance, and Real World. Although I have drifted away from some of this programming it always seems to suck me in especially during this stint of unemployment. With a couple round of layoffs at MTV as well a lot of one and done shows (cancelled after one season), it is very interesting to see how the culturally iconin network attempts to rebound in an era with more competition online as well as one cable coupled with a horrible economy.
The more shows that can avoid the boiler plate setup of a huge mansion, celebrity involvement, challenges and and castoff ceremonies, would probably bode well as its getting very played out. In particular shows that paint the picture of searching for “true love” are growing extremely stale, especially considering that they always seem more interested in having a second and third season compared to actually settling down.
