TVSquad

I guess the real news should be "MTV's Total Request Live is still on", because I -- and anybody else that is over twelve years old and/or doesn't listen to the Jonas Brothers -- had definitely forgotten about it. Really, what can be said about a program that started going downhill after Carson Daly left? The show will attempt to go out with some semblance of a bang in the form of a two-hour Saturday afternoon special next month. I'm not sure if anyone will cry, but I can almost guarantee plenty of unnecessary gyration and poorly-wailed lyrics.

Despite the fact that I'm part of MTV's target demographic, I don't really watch the network. I only tune in as I'm getting dressed in the early morning and MTV's running its morning music video block. For the rest of the day, MTV seems to avoid actually playing full music videos like the plague. Instead, they fill their programming schedule with awful reality shows about spoiled pre-teens and dating shows so depressing that contestants are even willing to pee all over themselves to get out.

Now, please allow me to frolic about in my own fantasy world, in which I create my idea of MTV's perfect programming schedule. There are only five -- FIVE -- MTV shows that I would keep. That's right. Everything else should be full-on music videos. In my own MTV, there will be no Laguna Beach, no Pimp My Ride, and certainly no Yo Momma (how did they manage to pitch that?!)

MTV is really getting into this whole idea of TV viewers also becoming TV content providers. First they add a new viewer video category for the MTV Movie Awards, and now they're looking for guest hosts for Total Request Live.

Fans of the show have to answer six questions to enter, including which celebrity that they'd pick to star as in a movie about their life, who they would pick for the ultimate TRL guest list, and how they would describe TRL to someone who has never seen the show before (that last one is easy: they play music videos, a celeb comes on, and the kids in the audience go nutso). MTV and Acuvue will pick four winners who will each host a day in May.

You also have to upload a picture of yourself. So please, make sure you're attractive.

[via TV Guide]

Like many of you, I love music, and I think we can all agree that the best way to listen to our favorite music is to have total strangers interrupt a song, and for the song to never play in its entirety. MTV understood this need, and that's why they gave us Total Request Live (or TRL as the cool kids call it).

In the wake of an announcement by Viacom that it would be cutting nearly 250 jobs from its music networks, rumors began to circulate that TRL would be taken off the air, but according to a rep from MTV, those rumors are not true. Regardless, TRL has seen a decline as of late, and Variety reports that interactive sites like YouTube and MySpace are partly to blame, as they provide a more personal mode of interactivity.

American Idol's Season Five runner-up, Katharine McPhee, is going to be sharing her very special McPheever all over the TV in the upcoming weeks while promoting the January 30th release of her self-titled debut album. So McPhee Phans, set your TIVOs:

January 29 -- Tonight Show With Jay Leno
January 31 -- The Today Show
February 1 -- Live With Regis & Kelly
February 1 -- A guest appearance on Ugly Betty
February 5 -- TRL
February 6 -- The Early Show
Februay 7 -- Jimmy Kimmel Live
February 8 -- Larry King Live