MTV lost 9% of its adults 18-49 primetime audience last year, can The Hard Times of RJ Berger help them turn that ratings trend around?
Can a well-endowed teen make MTV hot again? The youth-obsessed cable network, seeking to stem a years-long ratings slide, thinks it has found just the thing to get back on track: “The Hard Times of RJ Berger,” a scripted comedy about a boy with an, um, anatomical “gift.” [...]
But if controversy is what it will take for MTV to regain momentum, it may need a big dollop of it. The network’s viewership has sunk over the last few years, and its average rating at 10 p.m. — when MTV premieres new episodes of its shows — fell 18% to 801,000 viewers in 2009 from a year earlier among the channel’s core 12- to 34-year-old viewers.
Audiences seem to be tiring of its longtime hit “The Hills,” about the charmed, semi-staged life of Southland native Lauren Conrad, which launched back in 2006. Viewers fled last year after its star left the show. Dozens of other low-budget reality shows have come — and gone — without notice.
via latimes.com.
How about showing more music, “M”TV? the italian version is full of crappy, stupid programs which have nothing to do with music ( Damn! I keep forgetting about the useless charts used as filler, like “the 20 best parody”, “best choreography”, chosen by whom? and more importantly who cares?) It’s the same in the US?
Valerio, the programming on MTV in the US and MTV in Italy are different. Interestingly, I’ve watched some MTV in Italy (limited TV channels on vacation), but almost none in the US>
Sounds pretty desperate to me. Not only is it a crass concept, but one stolen in toto from HBO. Maybe they should try something truly novel. . . like playing music videos?
yeah, Mtv Italia broadcasts shows like reaper, secret life of an american teenager, greek, etc… the worst (aside from the content itself) are the programs like pimp my ride, roomraiders, the hills which are shown just with subtitles in Italian. At least I think (hope) they’ll never show “Jersey Shore” here, It would be kind of humiliating. As you can guess I don’t watch Mtv much anymore.
mtv hasn’t played music videos in 20 years. so tired of the “play music videos” comments. music-related programming, they need to bring back. music videos, not so much.
Ron, I couldn’t agree more. Evidently in the US and elsewhere we’re a minority, because to chase bigger audience or more precisely better ratings they dropped music for anything else not music-related. (In Italy the phenomenon is more recent, read early ‘00)
MTV often plays videos weekday mornings from 3 to 9 under the AMTV banner. The problem with videos, if I recall correctly, was that people flipped the channel as soon as a video appeared they didn’t like. With reality shows, there’s a better chance to keep the audience watching for a longer time.
ok im an 18 year old guy and this show seems absolutely stupid…a reality show about a teen with a big penis? you gotta be kidding me.
It’s not a reality, it should be a scripted comedy. Anyway sounds pretty lame.