MTV Studios launched to develop & produce reboots, originals for SVOD
MTV has announced it is launching MTV Studios in an effort to produce content for SVOD buyers, such as Hulu, Netflix, and Apple. Utilizing MTV’s own library of titles, the studio intends to develop and produce reboots and spin-off series including the already slated Daria & Jodie, Made, Aeon Flux, and MTV’s groundbreaking reality series The Real World. On top of the revivals, MTV Studios will also focus on new shows said to be largely unscripted. The network released an MTV Studios opening sequence, which you can check out in the player below!
Daria & Jodie is a reimagining of the MTV 1990 feminist series Daria. Written by Grace Edwards (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Inside Amy Schumer), the iconic animated franchise is reinvented through the eyes of heroine Daria Morgendorffer and one of her closest friends Jodie Landon. These two smart young women take on the world, with their signature satirical voice while deconstructing popular culture, social classes, gender, and race.
Aeon Flux is a live-action remake of the cult anime classic as the badass heroine assassin Aeon Flux teams up with a group of biohacking rebels in the not too distant dystopian future to battle a brutally repressive regime and save humanity. Jeff Davis (Teen Wolf, Criminal Minds), and Gale Ann Hurd (The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead) are executive producing.
The Real World invented modern reality television and is now returning to its roots. This reconnection to innocence for the trailblazing series strips away the polarization and cold anonymity of social media, the din of the 24-hour news cycle, and the facades of the instafamous culture to find out what happens “when seven strangers are picked to live in a house… stop being polite and start getting real.” Bunim-Murray Productions will produce alongside MTV Studios.
Made was an Emmy-winning life makeover series on MTV that is now returning under MTV Studios. In a world of 2D Instagram transformations, Made pairs talented young underdogs with experts for face to face coaching for total life, real-life inventions.
One of the new series being developed and produced by MTV Studios is The Valley. In the spirit of The Hills and The City, The Valley follows a group of attractive 20 somethings in a classic coming of age docu-series featuring first loves, relationships, and life decisions — with a twist. This group of young people is living in “The Valley” of Nogales, Arizona, a town along the border of the United States and Mexico. This is the real-life story of friends who are growing up on the edge of two countries, two cities as they share one Valley, their youth, and common bond.
MTV’s Straight Up Ghosted is another new series that focuses on real stories and social media. While social media has connected the world more than ever, it has also undercut our ability to deeply connect and communicate. Today, critical relationship-ending conversations and confrontations have faded into digital dialogue or worse “ghosting.” Straight Up Ghosted explores real stories of real people who vanished by blocking them, and unlocks the reality and uncomfortable truth to satisfy the ultimate question — why did you leave me?
Chris McCarthy, president of MTV, explains that the “thriving” cable platform “is a little more limiting than it used to be, so the stories that we tell on traditional cable are going to be very different than the stories that we would tell in SVOD.”
McCarthy went on to say that the younger demo will be reached more on the SVOD partner platforms while the 20+ demo will remain focused on MTV’s cable network. “Things that are in the animation space, things that are in pure music longform, things that are in the teen and high school space — those are the things that we’re going to be looking more in the SVOD space. The traditional amplified and louder versions of unscripted reality, we’re going to continue to focus on that in cable,” the MTV president added.
There is a possibility the newly launched MTV Studios — which has been in the works for about a year — could also reboot Beavis and Butt-Head for an SVOD platform, as well Unplugged which the studio will pitch towards a musically driven streaming platform. The shows being pitched for SVOD will be shopped to those platforms through Viacom.
Currently the fastest growing network on TV, MTV’s primetime viewership has not only grown but so has its streams this year, garnering 2.9 billion and counting. The cable network also has more than 350 million global social followers.
