The TV Zone

Don't know about you but when the news broke late yesterday that "Total Request Live" was being canceled this November, my instant reax was: "Whaa? ... 'TRL'? ... Still on?"

That's not good - if only because I'm supposed to be covering TV for a living and "TRL" was so far outa my zone of consciousness that I figured it had been put to rest years ago, along with N'Sync.

"TRL": Now that's a blast from the distant past - a late-century institution that had the buzz that "Soul Train" or "American Bandstand" musta had a half century or so before that. It was a big deal, a very big deal (and especially for anyone who tried to circumnavigate the Times Square studios in the late afternoon). Those crazy kids would come home from high school and request some boy band, and before you know it, there they were, on-screen! And Carson Daly. Almost as famous as Brit. But something happened and I haven't a clue what - other than the obvious fact that MTV hasn't been an actual MUSIC destination for years, and the disconnect between this show and MTV viewer expectations widened and widened and widened to the point where to actually admit watching "TRL" was tantamount to flagging the fact that you weren't me-bowing, or facebooking, or rockstarring, or doing whatever the hell it is crazy kids are supposed to be doing these days when they come home from school - which isn't homework, by the way.

Yup, viewership declined dramatically (under 400,000 viewers per day, or half the audience when it ruled in the late '90s) but I suspect something else was and is going on too: "TRL," like the rest of the video-based programming from the old days, was a tool for performers to sell albums, and when they discovered other more cost-efficient ways to reach their audience, then they cut "TRL" out of the mix. Big names still appeared, and still do, but "TRL" (or MTV) is hardly the center of the musical solar system any longer, and more like Pluto.

Here are some telling quotes that I lifted from the AP dispatch. They have a last-century feel to them, don't you think?

"For the finale, [MTV boss Dave] Sirulnick said he hopes to celebrate with many of the "folks who helped make `TRL' what it is -- whether that's Justin (Timberlake) and his guys in N'Sync, the Backstreet Boys, Britney, Eminem -- I think we would love to see all of them here." That includes former host Carson Daly."

In a statement, Eminem said: "I'm going to miss `TRL.' ... Where else will I be able to start feuds, defend my honor vigorously and act like an angry teenager on national TV? Oh wait ... The VMAs!"

(Pix: Mario, who starred here as well as on "DWTS." Getty Images Photo)