MTV is hoping that some of its classic television shows will once again entertain audiences.
On Thursday, the Viacom-owned cable channel announced it was launching MTV Studios, a new production wing that will revive classic MTV shows, in addition to producing new ones for other networks or streaming services. Reboots include animated series Daria, reality shows The RealWorld and Made, and anime series Aeon Flux. New shows include The Valley (which will be in the vein of The Hills) and MTV’s Straight Up Ghosted.
“MTV has the biggest collection of hit youth franchises that spans more than three decades of content and over 200 titles, part of which have fueled our resurgence,” MTV president Chris McCarthy told Variety. “With MTV Studios, we are for the first time ever opening up this vault beyond our own platforms to reimagine the franchises with new partners.”
McCarthy, who also has Logo and VH1 in his Viacom portfolio, has been credited with resurrecting MTV, after the network saw drops in ratings. Part of that has been embracing social media (and its stars) and turning to classic MTV formats: unscripted reality shows. He’s already brought back Total Request Live and other shows from the ’90s and ’00s.
Last summer, MTV saw its first growth in six years, according to a September 2017 report from Reuters. And revenue jumped to $1.2 billion last year, which according to Forbes was “its first year of sales growth since 2013.” From the start of 2018 to May 27, viewership in the key 18-34 demographic is up 21% compared to last year.
The play to capitalize on MTV’s vault of shows comes at a time when the race for intellectual property is heating up (Disney and Comcast bidding for Fox), as companies try to compete with Netflix.
Daria will return as Daria & Jodie and it will be written by Grace Edwards, from Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Inside Amy Schumer. Jeff Davis of Teen Wolf will resurrect Aeon Flux.