MTV Brings Back ‘TRL’ for Millennial Voter Registration Drive

MTV will revive its popular early-2000s television program Total Request Live, or TRL, on Tuesday in honor of National Voter Registration Day, re-branding the program “Total Registration Live” and bringing on a slew of artists and celebrities to help with its campaign.

The one-day special — set for National Voter Registration Day on Tuesday, September 27 — will feature artists including rappers Ty Dolla $ign and Vic Mensa, model Kendall Jenner, Avengers director Joss Whedon (who just launched an anti-Trump ad campaign), Fifth Harmony singer Cimila Cabello and more.

MTV describes the program as an “empowering live special that will rally millennials to vote.”

Millennials Can Decide This Election via @MTVInsights… pic.twitter.com/rERWXzZ9Ys

— MTV Communications (@MTVPress) September 26, 2016

While the original TRL featured Top 10-style countdowns of the day’s hottest music videos, the special will feature “powerful profiles will spotlight what is at stake in the upcoming election through the eyes of three millennials taking individual action to change their communities, including 24-year old rape survivor and legislative advocate Amanda Nguyen, Yale freshman and undocumented immigrant Larissa Martinez and 22-year old founder of the Georgia Muslim Voter Project Aisha Yaqoob.”

MTV personality Nessa will host the special.

This is not the network’s first foray into millennial voter registration drives. MTV has a longtime partnership with the youth-oriented Rock the Vote campaign, and in June launchd Elect This, a voter campaign targeted at millennials. MTV partnered with organizations including Planned Parenthood, Everytown for Gun Safety, GLAAD, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), FWD.us and NextGen Climate on that campaign.

MTV also was not the only media company to announced a voter registration drive in honor of National Voter Registration Day; distributor Fox Searchlight will register voters ahead of its much-anticipated Oscar hopeful The Birth of a Nation beginning Tuesday and running through the film’s opening weekend until October 9.

Other National Voter Registration Day partners include Google, Twitter, Tumblr, Univision and the Video Game Voters Network.

 

Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum