RIP Ridiculousness. Now the project is to make MTV cool again. That isn't actually that hard.
It has long been a joke about how MTV, which long ago jettisoned 24/7 music videos on its flagship channel, nowadays only screens episodes of Ridiculousness.
The joke resonates because it has largely been true. As the New York Times noted this weekend:
On Saturday, the show will fill 10 hours of MTV’s airwaves. On Sunday, 12 hours. And 14 on Monday.
Why was the New York Times talking about Ridiculousness, a low-budget MTV show where people make jokes about videos from the Internet? Besides representing everything that was wrong with what was once one of TV’s most iconic brands, the show just got cancelled after a 14-year run.
MTV’s “Ridiculousness” era — endlessly airing reruns of the same program, a strategy that many other channels adopted as cable lost subscribers, revenue, ratings, ambition and relevance — appears to be coming to an end.
There are still new episodes in the can yet to play out, which means we will see the show continue to dominate MTV’s schedule well into 2026. Of course, when I say “we,” I don’t actually mean you or I, humble reader. Chances are, like me, you’ve never actually watched the show.
Lets pour one out, though, for Ridiculousness host Rob Drydek who has lost his job… and the $32 million he was making each year for pumping out the show.
The cancellation of the show shouldn’t have surprised people paying attention to new Paramount Global owner David Ellison.
Revitalising the MTV brand is clearly on his mind. Back in September, the Wall St Journal reported of a dinner he held with former MTV execs on what they would do to revive it:
Skydance Chief Executive David Ellison posed a challenge to several former MTV executives gathered this spring inside a private room at an Italian restaurant in West Los Angeles. How might they rescue and reinvent a channel that once defined America’s pop culture?
Ellison, whose company was in the midst of merging with MTV owner Paramount, and his top executive, Jeff Shell, told the group that they realized the network was in bad shape. Still, they wondered whether it could become a “music tastemaker” again.
The CEO said he had received calls from people with ideas for the cable network and some interested in partnering with MTV, including longtime music executive Irving Azoff, and Lucian Grainge, CEO of Universal Music Group, as well as some artists, people familiar with the matter said.
The dinner guests put forward ideas to help MTV, such as holding live events and taking advantage of its archive of interviews and music documentaries with bands from the ’80s and ’90s.
All of that, obviously, sounds like terrible ideas that would interest viewers aged 45+. And if that’s the audience you are chasing for MTV, really, why even bother?
But in order to revitalise MTV, the first step had to be cancelling Ridiculousness. That’s now done.
I’d suggest that the old-school (at least the era leading into the 90s) nature of MTV, which was a mix of music videos, offbeat cartoons, and other interstitials, actually meets the moment pretty well these days. The way younger viewers consume media has changed, but their core genre preferences aren’t all that different.
MTV proved generations ago that short-form videos are popular with younger viewers. The biggest sin the network made was failing to understand that. They erred by moving beyond short-form into half-hour comedies and drama.
Programming for MTV should actually be easy enough. The difficulty is in making MTV a cool brand again.
I’d suggest that you can push MTV out into the world softly by programming it in the way it always had been (only with greater emphasis on multi-channel delivery via social channels, Pluto TV, Paramount+, YouTube, etc).
But you can’t just build it and expect audiences to turn up. You can, however, be strategic in getting MTV into the real world, into third spaces that kids inhabit, and once again become the soundtrack to young people’s lives.
Just, for gods sake, don’t tell them that you’re actually there. The next generation of viewers need to feel like they have just discovered it and take some ownership.
Beyond that… play music clips, dumb cartoons, and all sorts of other content that alienates 45+ adults. That shit never stopped being cool.
This isn’t rocket science.
News Desk
Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown reportedly filed a lengthy complaint against co-star David Harbour citing concerns about bullying ahead of filming the show’s fifth season. Read: The Wrap
Netflix has hired investment bank Moelis & Co, the same investment bank that advised Skydance Media on its bid for Paramount Global, to evaluate a prospective offer for Warner Bros Discovery. Is Netflix likely to buy WBD? Outside of buying it for the prestige of the film studio, IP holdings, and maybe CNN, I don’t really understand what WBD has that would benefit Netflix in the long or short term. It would be especially bad for HBO as a brand - its viewership will very rarely ever get the eyeballs Netflix want when commissioning follow-up seasons. Regardless, I suspect this is largely a play to get inside WBD to take a look under the hood and see what it can learn about the business while they have an opportunity. Read: Reuters
Timed for release with the Fortnite takeover, there will be four themed Fortnite x The Simpsons animated shorts om Disney+. Read: Polygon
The CBS spin-off of FBI (is it still a spin-off?) CIA, will recast a role played by Michael Michele. Read: Deadline
Further evidence that America is getting dumber is this CBS Mornings segment that amplifies noted intellect Kim Kardashian’s belief that the moon landing was faked. #BuzzLives Read: TV Insider
Congratulations to singer Xania Monet - breaking the glass ceiling for AI creations with her song How Was I Supposed to Know? - debuting at # 30 on the Adult R&B Airplay Billboard chart this week - the first AI creation to make the charts. Bravo. Read: Complex
CNN’s election night coverage this week will have a bonus CNN All Access version made for the young folk. Because it’ll be streaming, the coverage will not be behind a desk, but rather will be more chill with everyone sitting on a couch while eating and drinking. How hip. Read: Variety
Trailer Park
Frankenstein debuts Nov 7 on Netflix.
Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro adapts Mary Shelley’s classic tale of Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist who brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.
That’s the newsletter for today.
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