What Happened to Countdown Shows?

 

In the early 2000, countdown shows were a staple in the music industry. We had shows like top 20 from VH1, TRL from MTV, and 106 & Park from BET among others. However, since the 2010s, the countdown shows have decline and today are borderline extinct. Today we going to talk about a few of these countdown shows, then I’ll give you my theory on what happened and if there’s a possibility for these shows to comeback. So, without further ado here’s what happened to Countdown shows.

What Happened to Countdown Shows (1984-2014)

The Birth of the Countdown

Where do I want to begin. Let’s begin with August 1, 1981 that was the day the Video killed the radio star when MTV was born. For the first three years MTV just played music videos, and if it’s not music videos it was music related content. With the rise of videos, MTV need a way to rate which videos where the best. Sure, fans would call MTV networks to request a video to be aired but they needed something similar to a Billboard Hot 100. So, it was. In 1984, MTV launched the top 20 countdown. Mark Goodman was the first of many hosts of this show. How the videos get placed on the countdown is viewer requests and sales data helped determine the rankings, giving audiences a voice in the process. Hall & Oats “Adult Education” was the first video aired on the show as it was #20 and “Footloose” by Kenny Loggins was the first #1 on the show. The countdown would premiere at midnight, then reran days afterwards. The countdown would update every week as it shows viewers what’s popular and highlight newer artists on the rise.  During the countdown, VJs would give fun facts on said videos, and other pop culture news. This all cumulated in September 13, 1984 when MTV launched the first ever Video Music Awards, which is still a standard today. Top 20 wasn’t the only countdown show on MTV at the time. You had Dial MTV, where viewers would call in and request videos they want to see. Unlike Top 20, this show ran daily.

But overtime, airing music videos wasn’t profitable for MTV. They made most of their money on ad blocks. So, MTV need to find a way to make a profit. So, they launched shows like Remote Control which was their own game show, Beavis & Butthead, and launched a show that would change the chorus of television forever The Real World. Many feared that MTV was shifting away from music and another music channel was launched. In 1985 Video Hits One was born, most known by the initials VH1. Hard to distinct differences from MTV, but it mostly shined the light on older established musicians. VH1 was still a music channel but in 1994 the channel entered a rebrand. One of it’s rebrand was the VH1 Top 10 Countdown. How videos make this countdown, record sales, radio airplay, video spins, message board posts, and conventional mail decided the order of the countdown. The viewers didn’t have a say, initially. Which video was the first to hit #1 was unknown because VH1 would air the countdown show once on a Friday, rerun it two more times before becoming lost media. By 2001, VH1 shifted from Top 10 to Top 20 (might have something to do with MTV cancelling its show).

The Rise of the Countdown

Back with MTV, when I said it shifted away from music, they didn’t totally abandon it. They still had other music programs but MTV Top 20 Countdown had come to an end by decades end. In 1997 MTV Live was launched, with Time Square being it’s primary setting. That show featured celebrity interviews, live performance and video premieres. The next year Total Request was launched. Hosted by Carson Daly, that show was dedicated for viewers video request. Both shows would air back-to-back. MTV Live was struggling but Total Request wasn’t. So, the geniuses of MTV came up with was merging the shows into Total Request Live. The show would countdown the top 10 videos but unlike the first two shows the countdown was exclusively decided by the fans through the phoneline and later the internet. Unlike most countdown shows of the past, TRL took the leap and shifted the music industry. The show premiered just when the boyband/teen pop era was taking off. Their videos got heavy rotation on the show, the first #1 video of the TRL era was “I’ll Never Break Your Heart” by BSB. They had a pseudo-rivalry with NSYNC and in it’s first year, the #1 video was either NSYNC or BSB rotating. It wasn’t until early 1999 when that streak ended when Korn’s “Freak on a Leash” took the #1 and later Britney Spears. Briefly want to mention MuchonDemand, a show on MuchMusic which is basically the Canadian version of TRL.

By the time the millennium turned, TRL became the main flagship show on MTV. One network that was seeing a rise in content was Black Entertainment Television (or BET). During the 90s, the channel was growing in young viewers thanks to shows like Teen Summit & Rap City (basically the BET version of Yo MTV Raps). With the help of Stephen Hill (which BET stole from MTV), they created their version of TRL called 106 & Park BET Top 10 Live. The show premiered on September 11, 2000, air daily at 6pmET and run for 90 minutes. The first #1 video was Nelly “Country Grammar”. The show was TRL but aimed to the urban audience. Ja Rule ft. Lil Moe “Put it On Me” became the first video to “retire” on the countdown. In less than a year 106 & Park would surpass TRL in viewers and engagement. To showcase the shift, NSYNC made two appearances on the show. All this cumulated-on June 19, 2001 when the first ever BET Awards took place, which is still a standard today.  Like with TRL and boybands, 106 shaped the success of B2K. If it wasn’t for 106 B2K would’ve never seen the short-term success they had.

The Fall of the Countdown

In 2002, Carson Daly would leave TRL and various VJ would replace him. Names include Vanessa Minnillo (later Lachey) and LaLa Vaquez where two of the biggest names to hold down the fort. In 2004, the start of the decline of countdown shows begin. On February 1, 2004 the New England Patriots would defeat the Carolina Panthers for their second Super Bowl victory in three years. But that Super Bowl was most known for the halftime show. Janet Jackson was the main headliner and Justin Timberlake was the co-headliner. Towards the end of that performance, Justin pulled of a piece of clothing off Janet Jackson, exposing her. Everyone went in on Janet, essentially blackballing her. What does this incident have to do with the death of countdown shows? It influences a social media platform named YouTube Broadcast Yourself. While some of the early form of YouTube feature viral stuff that you’ll see on Ridiculousness. But some of early videos on YouTube started to show music videos of the past (with a few present) and basically became a time capsule. Then copyright lawsuits came along and YouTube had to reach a settlement. By 2006, Google purchased YouTube as Google saw the potential on YouTube evolving the internet.

This would have an indirect effect on countdown shows (for now). TRL saw the internet rise, so they stripped away phone lines and exclusively made fans vote online to put videos on countdown. They did this to keep up with the rise of the internet and gain traffic to mtv.com. By 2007, social media sites like Facebook, Twitter & Myspace were starting to take off and TRL was starting to decline. A show that once had 1 million daily viewers, now only managed under half a million. On November 2008, after a decade run on MTV, Total Finale Live was aired. Instead of a regular countdown of modern videos, they aired top 10 videos that helped shaped the show. The final video to air on TRL was “Baby One More Time” by Britney Spears.

With TRL gone, 106 & Park became the token countdown show. For a moment, 106 & Park was able to survive the rise of social media. One, they had specific daily themes like Wild Out Wednesdays and Freestyle Friday. With the rise of Twitter, 106 even included Twitter and read out some of the tweets that happened during the show. Then this one technology came in disrupted countdown shows but also music-based channels. Vevo. Vevo started off as a streaming service with the eventual goal of becoming a site for music videos. Its goal was to monetize music videos and make them profitable. In 2009, SME & UMG agreed as a joint venture with Vevo to place these music videos to syndicate on YouTube. Back in the day, artists never get revenue if their video was played on MTV, BET, VH1 or other music channels. With Vevo & YouTube running ads, artist now can monetize.

This wound up being a crushing blow to music television because back in the day some fan groups would be displeased if their favorite artist would miss the countdown. Let’s say it’s 2011, and “Moment for Life” by Nicki Minaj and Drake missed the countdown. You’ll be upset for now, but later go on YouTube and watch the video uncensored. But back with 106 they survived this but had an identity crisis. In the late 2000s, Terrance & Rocsi keep the ball rolling and maintained stable ratings. But in 2012 both hosts announced their departures. Let me also mention 106 have ranged from 90 show, to 2 hours show and briefly experimented with a three hour show but now needed to find replacements. Bow Wow, who was dubbed Mr. 106 was named a temporary host and BET decide to have three co-hosts but that failed. The paired him Angela Simmons and that was temporary. Kesha Shante was the permanent co-host for 106. But by that time 106 finally was cracking under the social media fanfare and with declining ratings 106 finally fell. In November 2014 106 & Park was cancelled with AJ & Free hosting the final show and Bow Wow giving one final performance. 106 announced a digital only format would continue but never came to be and by 2016, BET music operations basically ceased to exist, outside of their own BET Awards.

That lead VH1 Top 20 being the last countdown show standing. It maintained mostly a stable showing; it too was phasing out. In 2015, one year after 106 cancellations, VH1 top 20 was cancelled without warning nor fanfare. It’s final #1 was “Hotline Bling” by Drake. Countdown shows were nearly gone, but there was hope. First MTV launched MTV Classic to replace VH1 Classic which all they do is play old music videos, and still do till this day.  Rumors about a TRL revival surfaced as early as 2014. They’ll have one-time specials here in there but nothing would go beyond it. Finally in 2017, in an effort to recapture its music content MTV announced TRL would return and it did on October that same year. DC Youngfly was the host, with Liza Koshy, The Dolan Twins, Eva Gutowski, Gabbie Hanna and Gigi Gorgeous and Jaymes Skendarian. But many would describe it as an inconsistent mess. One it over relied on its social media superstars, or social media in general. But the biggest disappointment was that it aired zero music videos on its premiere episode but will air snippets of videos on and off. By April 2018, TRL was placed on hiatus. TRL had short-term spinoffs like TRL Late Nights, TRL AM as MTV tried to see what stuck, but nothing did. However, they did have segment called Fresh Out Live which they’ll do interview and artists would maybe do a performance. While that still exist in some form, none of the big artist bothered appearing.

Now its 2020s and the music industry is at a crossroads but in particular music videos. In the mid-2010s, YouTube and Vevo were at their peaks. Artists like Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Adele, Drake, The Weeknd, Cardi B, Bad Bunny would consistently put out videos that would surpass 1 billion. And some non-big names like Trevor Daniel, Jhene Aiko, Alessia Cara have reached high substantial views. But since 2023, the value of a music video has decreased (with few exceptions). Most artists would rather do visualizers and lyric videos opposed to a scripted music video that told a story, showcase choreography or generate a buzz. Take NLE Choppa’s recent video of “Walk Away” where he decides to take a risk and do choreography. However, that video only sits at under 800,000 views. A video like that would probably hit 100 million in 2018. What has caused music videos to decline, is the lack of some show to promote said videos. You’ll be right and you’ll be wrong. Any promotion is good promotion and if someone showcases a video. I think there are two culprits on music video downfalls. #1) TikTok. TikTok started to rise in popularity in the late 2010s and took off in the odd year of 2020. Movements like Savage dance, Savage Love, Blinding Lights. Longterm effects was that user’s attention spans have decreased over time. They do not want to sit through and watch an 8-minute music video telling a story, unless it’s Taylor Swift of course. 2) Spotify. Spotify alongside Amazon, iTunes streaming has taken off and they give YouTube videos competition.

Back to the countdown theme, as of 2025 there is only one countdown show on television and that is CMT Top 20 Countdown. They showcase the best videos in their genre as it premiered in 2013 with “Cruise” by Florida Georgia Line & Nelly being the first #1 video. Now the ratings for this show aren’t great but what CMT does that no other music channels do, no matter what the circumstances (even though they are owned by Paramount formally Viacom) they stay true to county music content.

And this brings us to this question, can countdown shows make a comeback? The legit answer is I’m not sure. Let’s look at some positives. A countdown show can re-emphasize music videos as that form of music has been seeing a decent. Next is a quote that I said earlier in this video, any promotion is good promotion. Feel like musicians are having a hard time promoting their music nor have the budget for it, so they could take whatever they can get. Third, competition let’s see how these modern stan wars handle voting. Now the negatives, no one will know how a countdown show work. Will it air on cable tv, streaming service, will it stream on somewhere like Twitch. Two the demand as there’s not much demand for music related shows. Third, I thought #2 was going to be the biggest but this might be the one and that with licensing as companies like Warner, Sony & Universal are running a tighter ship these days with miscellaneous problems.

In conclusion, can countdown shows make a comeback? I put this in the never say never territory. I think a countdown show in 2025 would be interesting. But at the same time, there are big time challenges to just air videos on music channels. Noticed I kept this video based on American countdown shows. They may be some countdown based show in other countries but the American market is the biggest in the music industry. Only time will tell if countdown shows will return.