Over the years, one of the last things you would see on the youth-obsessed MTV was a parent. Now moms and dads aren’t unusual sights, even on the twin totems to wild behavior and its consequences — ‘Jersey Shore’ and ‘Teen Mom’ — that are key to the network’s latest resurgence. Many young viewers targeted by MTV have no problem with parents being an active part of their lives, even during rebellious years, and expect their presence on television.
Understanding such generational nuances is crucial to MTV, which has the brutal imperative of reinventing itself every five or six years to appeal to a new group of 12- to 24-year-olds. Their viewers eventually grow up. MTV never can. The latest reinvention has MTV with its best ratings in five years. The third season of ‘Jersey Shore’ was the network’s top-rated show ever, and the second season of ‘Teen Mom’ similarly zoomed up the charts. The challenge now is figuring out how to build on that success and know when to be ready for the next reinvention.
This spring, MTV has steered in a surprisingly traditional direction. MTV debuts a remake of the ‘Teen Wolf’ series on June 5, brings back ‘Beavis and Butt-head’ later this year, has its own weight loss series for teens and two ‘Jersey Shore’ spinoffs in the works. Between recycled ideas, spinoffs and a new focus on establishing scripted series, MTV’s approach feels more like a typical broadcast network than ever before.
MTV viewers “want more from us,” said Van Toffler, president of MTV Networks Music/Films/Logo Group. Toffler, who has been with MTV since 1986, and newly appointed network president Stephen Friedman, at MTV since 1998, have survived its ups and downs over the years. The latest cycle began with the expiration of ‘Laguna Beach’ and ‘The Hills.’ After a reasonably successful first season of the reality competition series ‘Paris Hilton’s Best Friend,’ the second season proved disastrous.
A couple of years ago MTV Networks acquired rights to a short reality series, ‘World’s Strictest Parents,’ and it was put on the CMT network. MTV decided to run a few episodes, too, and was surprised at how many people watched. At the same time, MTV’s head of reality programming had seen statistics about a rise in teen pregnancies and the series ‘16 and Pregnant’ was born in spring 2009.
‘Jersey Shore’ began in a completely different form, as a pilot of a competition series for VH1. It was retooled into what now exists and MTV knew just by the way people were talking about promotions for the new series that it had a potential hit.
‘Real World,’ a series that has been on MTV for two decades and had grown a little tired, suddenly found its feet again commercially and creatively. A Washington-based season proved stale, and moving to Las Vegas for another edition increased the personal drama and fun. (Season 12 of the series, in 2002, also took place in Las Vegas and was one of the show’s highest-rated seasons.) MTV viewers are interested in the rites of passage — such as young people moving into their first apartments and getting jobs in ‘Real World’ — that are relatable yet more entertaining than their own lives, Friedman said.
Another key moment for MTV was the Video Music Awards incident in 2009 when Kanye West questioned Taylor Swift’s award-worthiness onstage, an episode that exploded through social media. Toffler said MTV had been grappling with how to deal with social media, and came to see it through West’s outburst as a means rather than an end: Social media can be a boon to the company if it has the content people want to talk about.
Blessed with success, MTV is looking to spread the ‘Jersey Shore’ franchise with two spinoffs. For MTV and other networks, taking advantage of a huge success in this manner is like holding your hand close to a fire. You can be warmed or burned, and it can all happen very fast.
That explains the breadth of programming under development at MTV, with scripted series the biggest step. ‘Teen Wolf’ remakes the old Michael J. Fox movie at a time vampires and other supernatural creatures are popular. ‘Awkward,’ due in July, is about a high school girl who isn’t noticed until an accident leaves her in a body cast. MTV hasn’t said whether it will move forward with the sexually frank series ‘Skins,’ which attracted considerable attention last winter.
MTV has aired the reality series ‘I Used to Be Fat’ and has ‘Ridiculousness,’ a show that runs through funny online videos, in the works. The network is also developing a new generation musical countdown show aimed at helping viewers come to grips with the breadth of music online.
MTV reinvents itself with new generation
