Racing Home From School for TRL

Racing home from school for TRL meant catching MTV's Total Request Live countdown from Times Square. Fans screamed outside the window from 1998 to 2008.

current mood: hypercurrently listening to: ♫ the countdown, number ten to number one

Written by Claire Donovan · October 9, 202656k: ~2 min

You dropped your backpack in the doorway and hit the TV power button, because TRL was about to start and the crowd was already screaming at the window. TRL, short for Total Request Live, was MTV's daily countdown of the ten most requested music videos, broadcast live from a studio overlooking Times Square. It premiered on September 14, 1998, and for the next few years it was where pop stars dropped by, fans screamed outside the window and kids raced home from school to see which video made number one. Carson Daly was the host most people remember. The original run ended with a farewell special on November 16, 2008.

How the countdown worked

Viewers voted for their favorite videos by phone and online, and every afternoon TRL counted down the top ten. The hosts played clips of each video, talked with guests in the studio and checked in with the crowd. The vote made it feel like you had a say. If your favorite band slipped to number four, you knew exactly what to do tomorrow, and it involved the phone.

Videos that stayed near the top long enough were "retired" from the countdown to make room for new ones. Getting a video retired was a badge of honor. Britney Spears had more retired videos than anyone, and the finale counted down her "...Baby One More Time" as the most famous video in the show's history. A few years later, plenty of the same viewers were finding new bands on The O.C. instead.

The studio window

TRL broadcast from MTV's studio on the second floor of 1515 Broadway, right above Times Square. Big windows looked straight down on the street, so stars waved at the crowd and the crowd waved back with handmade signs. On busy days the sidewalk filled with fans holding posters for whoever was on.

The crowd was part of the show. Hosts leaned out the window, cameras panned across the signs and people at home watched for anyone they knew. Getting on TV in that crowd was a goal for a whole lot of teenagers on a school trip to New York. Some people planned whole vacations around grabbing a spot on the sidewalk before the show started.

Racing the bus home

TRL aired in the afternoon, so it landed right when school let out. A lot of people remember running off the bus, dropping a backpack in the doorway and hitting the TV power button just in time for the countdown. If you missed it, you heard about it at school the next morning anyway, especially when a big star had been on.

It went right along with the other after-school routine of the time, which was checking your favorite websites and signing on to see who was online. TV and the internet were fighting over the same couple of hours, and TRL usually won that fight.

Boy bands, pop stars and rivalries

TRL caught the peak of late-90s and early-2000s pop. Britney Spears, *NSYNC, the Backstreet Boys and Christina Aguilera battled for the top spot, and so did rock bands like Korn and Blink-182. Fans argued about it like sports teams, with the same tempers. When the countdown ended, a lot of the same viewers flipped over to VH1 for Behind the Music.

*NSYNC's "Bye Bye Bye" held number one for 25 days in a row, second only to Britney's "You Drive Me Crazy," which held it one day longer. When the Backstreet Boys released "Millennium" in 1999, so many fans packed into Times Square that the area had to be closed off.

1. B#1 Britney Spears
2. *#2 *NSYNC
3. B#3 Backstreet Boys
4. C#4 Christina Aguilera
5. E#5 Eminem
6. D#6 Destiny's Child
7. B#7 Blink-182
8. K#8 Korn

The hosts after Carson

Carson Daly was the face of TRL, and when he stepped away in 2003, the show leaned on a rotating crew. Over the years the hosts included Dave Holmes, Hilarie Burton, Quddus, Damien Fahey, Vanessa Minnillo, La La Vasquez and Susie Castillo, among others. Everybody had a favorite host, and plenty of people say the show was never quite the same after Carson left.

TRL also had versions in other countries. TRL Italy started in 1999 and became one of the longest-running shows on MTV Italy.

Moments people still talk about

Some days felt like anything could happen on live TV. In 2000, Eminem hosted the show and joked about his own album. In 2001, Mariah Carey showed up unannounced pushing an ice cream cart and turned the afternoon into one of the strangest live moments the show ever had. In 2002, Beyoncé and Jay-Z performed together in matching denim.

Smaller moments piled up too. Stars stopped to sign posters on the street, and some guests got so caught up in the crowd that they ran late for the countdown.

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When did TRL end?

The original TRL ended in November 2008. Carson Daly had stepped away years earlier, and by then the show had a rotating group of hosts and far fewer viewers than in its peak years. The last regular episode aired on November 13, 2008, and a big farewell special called "Total Finale Live" followed on November 16. The last video it played was "...Baby One More Time."

After MTV left, part of the old studio space spent a few years as an Aeropostale store, which felt strange if you remembered the screaming crowds.

MTV brought TRL back in October 2017 in the same Times Square space, with new hosts and a mix of internet stars and musicians. It didn't catch on the way the original had and wound down within about two years.

Things people remember

• Making a sign at home and never getting to use it
• Calling in a vote, then calling again just to be sure
• The countdown graphics flying across the screen
• Watching the crowd shots for anyone you knew
• Taping the show on VHS when your favorite band was on, or pausing it on a TiVo if your family had one
• Arguing at lunch about who should have been number one

Your own countdown

TRL is where plenty of people found the song they'd later put on their profile. If you were the kid who knew every word to the number one video, that song is probably still in your head. Put it on your crib as your profile song, and if you're not on FriendCrib yet, get your own crib and pick it today.

Vote: Who should have retired more videos on TRL?

*NSYNCorBackstreet Boys

You'll need a free crib to vote.

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