Network’s reinvention is aimed at entertaining the millennial generation
Coming soon ...
New MTV series
‘IT’S ON WITH ALEXA CHUNG’ A daily, live entertainment show that viewers help create.
‘THE BURIED LIFE’ Real-life adventure of four young men on an epic quest to prove that anyone can do anything.
‘DJ AND THE FRO’ It’s “Beavis and Butthead” for the millennial generation.
‘THE STYLIST’ [working title] Reality series follows a group of struggling junior assistants toiling for highly successful celeb stylists.
‘ULTIMATE PARKOUR CHALLENGE’ Parkour is the world’s fastest growing extreme sport.
‘PRANKED’ The best pranks from the Internet.
‘POPZILLA’ Rapid-fire animated sketch show relentlessly skewering pop culture.
‘GONE TOO FAR’ Each episode features a unique protagonist with a serious addiction who needs help.
‘DISASTER DATE’ Singles are set up on disastrous blind dates by their friends.
For someone slated to be the face of a new TV show replacing one of the most influential series of our generation on pop culture’s most revered network, Alexa Chung is surprisingly not nervous.
“I thought I would be more so,” says the British TV personality, whose hourlong, live variety program, “It’s On with Alexa Chung,” premieres June 15 on MTV as the centerpiece of the network’s rebranding campaign post-“Total Request Live.” “But I just feel like if people like you, they do; if they don’t, it’s fine,” she adds.
The 25-year-old is relatively unknown stateside — except for photographs of her in cute outfits in fashion glossies. But it’s her too-cool-to-care attitude that impressed MTV executives when searching for the host of the most important of the network’s nine new shows aimed at the millennial generation — you know, kids whose fleeting attention is sprinkled over multiple iChat and Facebook conversations via their iPhones.
“The audience has changed; there’s been a real generational shift these shows all reflect,” says Tony DiSanto, head of programming for MTV, about the new lineup.
He’s excited about their new docu-series “The Buried Life,” which follows four guys on a quest to live out their dreams while helping strangers fulfill their own aspirations.
“[Our audience] is moving from a ‘me’ generation to an ‘us’ generation. Post-Obama election, people really believe anything can happen and dreams can become reality,” says DiSanto.
One reality that can’t be ignored is the importance of online presence — catering to a generation that doesn’t know a life without the Internet. “It’s On” is partnering with Twitter and Facebook as “sort of a TV manifestation of a social networking experience,” explains DiSanto.
Based on the U.K.’s “Lily Allen And Friends,” “It’s On” will be a mix of celebrity interviews and performances taking place in a studio set up to look like Chung’s loft apartment.
“[The premise] will be me inviting people into my home and getting to know them better,” explains Chung, who recently moved into a Williamsburg pad with her boyfriend, Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys, and is simultaneously helping decorate both places.
Audience members can send in clips to her show, ask celebrity questions, or tweet in real time if they think, say, a performance sucked.
“We’re not going to be kissing the ass of whoever’s coming on,” says Chung. “It’s much more free and honest and truthful.”
If anyone can translate that to the tech-obsessed kids with ever-shrinking attention spans that MTV is seeking, it seems to be Chung.
“I’m online looking at some pretty sweet Lanvin dresses,” she openly admits during our phone call. “And I’ve been Twittering — I just reminded myself not to swear in this interview.”
