This is impossible for someone young to understand, but MTV used to be the coolest channel on television. For most of the 90s, it produced original programming that you did not need to be a stupid, female, 12-year-old Less Than Jake fan to enjoy; shows like The State, Liquid Television, and Beavis and Butt-Head. Then the penny-pinching billionaires atop Viacom’s corporate ladder decided to squeeze a few more shekels from their revenue stream by cutting writers out of the loop and focusing exclusively on reality television. At the same time, MTV narrowed its demographic focus from the young and hip to the tweenaged and brain damaged. The result is Lauren Conrad‘s enduring, puzzling fame.
But MTV’s heading in a new direction, according to net prexy Tony DiSanto, who admits that the network might be stuck in a little pattern of churning out fuck-awful garbage, although he phrases it differently: “We might have fed on the success of certain formats for a hair too long, and done too much of them.” Hear, hear, Tony; the first season of Room Raiders was appointment television, but what a sophomore slump! I’m kidding, of course; every episode of that dreck dragged the brand further into the sewer. So did The City, Run’s House, Paris Hilton New BFF…I don’t have time to transcribe their schedule. Here. You see if there’s something you’d rather watch over Remote Control or The Week in Rock.
Sadly, some of MTV’s “new” direction will be more of the skater-brigade idiocy already taking up space – Rob Dyrdek, Nitro Circus, et al – but they’re also going to be launching an American remake of some British show about teenagers I’ve never heard of called Skins. It’s scripted, so there’s a chance the entertainment quotient might come from hearing a character say something funny, rather than hoping a safe falls on the head of whoever the camera’s pointed at.
Source: NY Daily News
No comments yet.