The early version of TRL featured popular music videos played during its countdown and was also used as a promotion tool by musicians, actors, and other celebrities to promote their newest works to target the show's teen demographic. During the original run of the program, TRL played the ten most requested music videos of the day, as voted on by viewers via phone or online.
The show generally aired Monday through Thursday for one hour, though the scheduling and length of the show fluctuated over the years. Although TRL was billed as a live show, many episodes were prerecorded. Due to declining ratings, and the larger decline of music-based television in favor of online services, MTV announced the cancellation of TRL on September 15, Less than a decade later, TRL was revived on October 2, The show was then rebranded to Fresh Out Live.
The show proved to be one of the most watched and most interactive in MTV history, demonstrating that it had potential to become an even larger success. The show then grew to become MTV's unofficial flagship program. The abbreviation TRL was adopted as the official title of the show in February , after Daly and Dave Holmes began using it on air regularly. In the years following, the program was rarely referred to by its original title.
TRL spent its first year developing a cult-type following. By early , the show reached its peak, becoming a very recognizable pop culture icon in its first two years of existence.
A weekend edition of the show known as TRL Weekend , with a countdown of the week's top 10 videos, aired for a short time in On October 23, , TRL celebrated its 1,th episode. The number-one video on that day was " Dirrty " by Christina Aguilera. Also throughout , original host Daly was gradually seen less often, as he had begun his own late-night talk show Last Call with Carson Daly on NBC.
