Total Request Live

*Total Request Live*
Total Request Live
	MTV's Times Square studioMTV's Times Square studio
Starring	Damien Fahey; Vanessa Minnillo; Susie Castillo; La La Vasquez
Country of origin	USA
Production
Running time	60 minutes
Original release
Network	MTV
Release	September 14, 1998 –; present

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Total Request Live (commonly known as TRL) is a television program on MTV that features popular music videos. The program plays the top ten most requested videos of the day, as requested by viewers who can vote online. The countdown starts with the tenth most requested video and ends with the most requested. The program generally airs every weekday for one hour, though the scheduling and length have occasionally fluctuated over the years.

History

The roots of TRL go back to 1997 when MTV began producing MTV Live (originally hosted by British VJ Toby Amies) from a studio in Times Square in New York. MTV Live featured celebrity interviews, musical performances, and regular news updates. Though producers downplay the similarities, MTV Live shared several signature elements with a live show on MuchMusic, a Canadian competitor's channel, including its Good Morning America-styled windows-displaying-onlookers-on-a-metropolitan-street format. Music videos were not the major focus of the program.

During the same time period, MTV aired a countdown show simply called Total Request, hosted by Carson Daly. Total Request was far more subdued, as Daly introduced music videos from an empty, dimly lit set. As the show progressed and gained more momentum with viewers tuning in, it was soon added to the list of daytime programming during MTV's Summer Share in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. The countdown would end up being one of the most watched and most interactive shows in recent MTV history that summer, proving that it had potential to become an even larger success by combining with the element of live television.

By the fall of 1998, MTV producers decided to merge the real-time aspect of MTV Live and the fan-controlled countdown power of Total Request into Total Request Live, which made its official premiere from the MTV Studios in New York on September 14, 1998. The show has since grown to become MTV's unofficial flagship program.

The widely known acronym of TRL was adopted as the official title of the show in February 1999, after VJs Daly and Dave Holmes began using it on air regularly. The program is now rarely, if ever, referred to as its complete title, Total Request Live.

TRL spent its first year developing a cult-type following; by spring 2000, the countdown reached its peak, becoming a very recognizable pop culture icon in its first two years of existence. However, its influence seems to have greatly diminished since. A weekend edition of the show known as TRL Weekend, with a countdown consisting an average of the week's Top 10, aired for a short time in 2000.

On 2 November 2006 it was announced that TRL will debut what is being billed as the first ever Hip-Hop public service announcement on global warming. The three-minute piece is titled "Trees" and is accompanied with a new track by Dr. Octagon aka Kool Keith. It warns about deforestation and the dangers of global warming and was created by New York-based production company Click 3X with director George Gerville. Gerville hopes that the piece will engage a broad audience on the subject of global warming, and serve as a positive call to action - a reminder that you can still make a difference. Producer One Watt Sun crafted the music, which blends live action with illustration and high tech CG animation. Lead animators on the project were Mark Szumski, Rob Cambell, Anthony Filipakis and illustrator Gabriel Tick and Steve Tozzi. They were inspired by the works popular director/animator Tim Burton and artist Kara Walker. The piece is unique because it "was in a constant state of evolution from the start" to convey a truly important message. "Trees" will debut during on MTV's TRL on 2 November 2006 at 4 pm EST.

Notes

TRL is MTV's prime outlet for music videos as the network continues to concentrate on reality-based programming. In addition to the music videos, TRL has daily guests as it is a popular promotion tool used by many musicians, actors, and other celebrities to promote their newest works to the show's target teen audience.

Tom Green had a number one video with "Lonely Swedish (The Bum Bum Song)". He quickly called for the video to be retired saying "it's not fair to 98 Degrees." Later, in his autobiography, he revealed that MTV had pressured him to do so in order to maintain the image that Total Request Live was, in fact, a live request show (the next week's episodes had been pre-taped on location, and the producers of the show were completely unaware of "The Bum Bum Song" at the time).

Music videos that air on TRL are subject to a general "retirement" rule, that they may only remain on the countdown for a limited amount of days. The original retirement cap was 65 days, which was reduced to 50 days in 2002. On the October 10th, 2006 It was announced at the end of the show that the retirement cap was being reduced to 40 days, due to the large amount of videos that are constantly coming out, giving a better chance for new videos to enter the top 10. Artists who do manage to hang onto the countdown and reach retirement are awarded with a plaque, commemorating their achievement.

Career benefits

Many view this show as the show that launched the careers of many teen artists from the late 1990s/early 2000s. Even though boy bands The Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync were out before TRL made it on air in mid 1998, both groups didn't reach their commercial peaks until after their videos were seen on TRL. In 1999, the Backstreet Boys' second LP. Millennium achieved the highest first week sales ever from an LP, thanks in part to the many TRL fans who closed down the streets of Times Square in order to see the group live on the show. 'N Sync did the same thing in 2000 when their second LP, No Strings Attached topped the BSBs' first week sales, and fans closed down the streets of Times Square once again. For the most part of 1998, 1999 and 2000, the BSB and 'N Sync would always fight over the #1 position on the countdown.

Detroit rapper, Eminem made his mainstream debut on the show in 1999 with his video for My Name Is. The video became the first rap video to gain the #1 spot on the show. TRL eventually retired the video after thirty days in a row at the top spot.

Pop Princess Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson and Mandy Moore, all made their debuts on TRL as well. Britney and Christina specifically became huge after their videos became hits on the countdown. The two became regulars on the show and would appear live often. If The Backstreet Boys or 'N Sync did not have any videos out, then it would usually be Aguilera or Spears in the #1 position. Simpson wouldn't see the same type of success until five years later, when she starred in an MTV reality show Newlyweds, which helped her videos become moderate hits on TRL. Other artists owe musical success to TRL such as Hilary Duff who debuted her first single "So Yesterday"(2003) and since has become a TRL as well as MTV superstar (She was also the first artist to have a made-for-Disney video "Why Not" debut and retire on the show), Jesse McCartney is a TRL regular, Aly & AJ debuted their first official single Rush followed by their very successful single Chemicals React, Vanessa Hudgens who recently made her first TRL debut, and a large multitude of rock bands such as My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy and more.

VJs

In 2003, Carson Daly stepped down as the host of TRL in order to host NBC's Last Call. Hosting since has been a revolving door of VJs including Damien Fahey, Vanessa Minnillo, Quddus, La La Vasquez, Susie Castillo, and Hilarie Burton.

The current hosts (as of October 2006) are Damien Fahey, Vanessa Minnillo, Susie Castillo, and La La Vasquez. Stephen Coletti has been on TRL many times before. He had been promoting Laguna Beach. The rest of the VJs are currently working on separate projects. La La Vasquez is now working of what is going to be her debut rap album. Hilarie Burton is currently working on episodes of One Tree Hill, and Quddus is now working on a movie set to be released soon.

Registered voters may vote online for TRL videos at MTV.com. Only one vote per day is allowed. Votes are no-longer taken by phone as stated on the July 10, 2006 episode.

Cultural references

The show has been parodied countless times on sketch comedy shows, like MADtv, Saturday Night Live, and All That. More recently, the show was parodied on the MTV2 program Wonder Showzen. In the first season episode "Nature", the show was parodied as Total Racewar Live, hosted by Wonder Showzen's black supremacist character Rufus Truthfist.

International versions

The first international version of TRL was created in Italy, November 2, 1999. Hosts include: Marco Maccarini, Giorgia Surina, Federico Russo, Alessandro Cattelan and Carolina Di Domenico. TRL Italy now is live everyday in from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in Piazza del Duomo, (As well as in Rome, Naples, Genova, Turin).

The British version known as TRL UK was hosted by Dave Berry, Alex Zane, Jo Good, and Maxine Akhtar. It was broadcast live from Leicester Square in London. Following the 1st series broadcast from Leicester Square, the top 10 countdown was scrapped. The last series finished at the end of 2005. Although the TRL UK website stated they were preparing for the next series, the show never returned, and its studios are now being used for weekly talk show fronted by Russell Brand (also on MTV). Although TRL UK has finished its run it still airs the American version every weekday morning at 10am.

The German version of TRL is also very successful throughout Europe and is known as Total Request Live Germany. TRL Germany has the highest television ratings from all other TRL versions in Europe. The show is hosted by Joko and Mirjam throughout the week from 4 to 5 p.m. TRL Germany is set in Berlin.

The Australian version started out as only a weekend show but is now on live Monday to Friday. It is hosted by Maz Compton, Lyndsey Rodrigues, Nathan Sapsford and Jason Robert Dundas. In early 2006 it moved back to being only on Friday evenings.

The Latin TRL is called Los 10+ Pedidos' (The 10 most requested) is hosted by "Gabo" in the Northern Region (Mexico) and the Central Region (Central America, Dominican Republic and Northern South America) and by Cecilia in the Southern Region (Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Falkland Islands) and airs everyday. The Central region was recently revived after being fused with the Northern region; thus, while a new VJ is found and the voting process gets underway, the Northern 10+ is shown in those countries. A spin-off of it called Los 10+ Rock is also shown everyday and it focuses on the 10 most requested rock videos based on the voting for Los 10+ Pedidos. Two more spin-offs have recently appeared: Los 10+ Pop in the Southern Region and Los 10+ Metal in the Central Region. It airs Mon-Fri at 3:00-4:30 p.m. EST.

In MTV Brazil there is a very similar program, that is often compared to TRL, called Disk MTV. This program was created before TRL, existing since the launch of MTV Brazil in 1990, and has never changed its format (a top ten request show) over the years. It airs Mon-Fri at 6:00-7:00 p.m.

After a Polish version of TRL became a huge TV flop MTV Poland decided to launch a new chart show, still bsed on TRL's structure. Its name is "The Interactive Chart" and is aired from Monday to Saturday at 4 p.m. on MTV Poland.

In Canada, MTV Canada airs MTV Live, a talk show comparable in many ways to TRL, but with very limited musical content. (MTV Canada is licensed as a talk channel, not a music channel.) MuchMusic's Countdown is closer in format to TRL.

As part of the launch of a new U.S. channel targeted to bilingual hispanics, Mi TRL is created launching MTV Tr3s in September 2006. The show keeps the same format that the english version uses, even the graphics. Mi TRL was initially anchored by Carlos and Susie Castillo, but since then have replaced Susie with Denise. The MTV News is delivered straight from Los Angeles by Liz Hernandez

External links and references