Total Request Live

About Total Request Live

Total Request Live (commonly known as TRL) is the flagship television series on MTV that features popular music videos. TRL is MTV's prime outlet for music videos as the network continues to concentrate on reality-based programming. In addition to music videos, TRL features daily guests. The show is a popular promotion tool used by musicians, actors, and other celebrities to promote their newest works to the show's target teen demographic.

TRL plays the top ten most requested videos of the day, as requested by viewers who vote online for their favorite video. The countdown starts with the tenth most requested video and ends with the most requested. As of October 22, 2007, TRL's countdown is based on votes, charts, ringtones, download, radio airplay, and streams, meaning that the most user requested video might not be the number 1 video. The show generally airs Monday through Thursday for one hour, though the scheduling and length of the show have fluctuated over the years. Despite the word "Live" in the title of the show, many episodes are actually pre-recorded.

The roots of TRL trace back to 1997 when MTV began producing MTV Live (originally hosted by British VJ Toby Amies) from the newly opened MTV studios in Times Square in New York. MTV Live featured celebrity interviews, musical performances, and regular news updates. Though producers downplay the similarities, MTV Live shared several signature elements with Much On Demand, a live show on MuchMusic, a Canadian competitor's channel, including its Good Morning America-styled format of windows displaying onlookers on a metropolitan street. Music videos were not the major focus of the program.