MTV announced today that the first guests on its TRL reboot will be British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran and Atlanta hip-hop trio Migos. The first installment of the revived show will air on Oct. 2.
TRL will air live weekdays at 3:30 p.m. ET from MTV’s newly expanded Times Square studio. TRL is hosted by D.C. Young Fly along with the show’s “squad,” which includes Tamara Dhia, Amy Pham, Erik Zachary, Lawrence Jackson and content creators such as Liza Koshy and The Dolan Twins.
In rebooting the series, which was enormously popular in its initial 1998-2008 run, the network is making significant efforts to snare its young target audience. According to a press release, the show “will integrate linear, social and digital elements and bring teen passion points to life, while continuing to incorporate audience requests.” Clips from the main show will be immediately distributed to social media, supplemented by original digital segments, short-form social videos and blog posts. Also, there will be an official TRL show on Musical.ly, airing on Mondays and Thursdays.
In announcing the revival of the franchise in July, new network president Chris McCarthy said, “Who’s not going to support a platform that’s covering all of the buckets of social media and cable to allow your artist to go on, play a video, perform a song and to talk about their new music that just got released?” he asked. “How do you say no to that? We’re going to give it a shot, a big shot.”
