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On the flip side, heavy rotation on TRL doesn't guarantee boffo sales; just ask former New Kids On The Block and TRL staples Jordan Knight and Joey McIntyre, whose comeback albums peaked on the Billboard 200 at Nos. 29 and 49, respectively. Still, TRL is notable for providing a place where Christina Aguilera and Kid Rock can coexist peacefully. "It's like the U.N. of music-video shows," offers Daly, who's become something of a TRL heartthrob himself. "Everybody has a place."

Well, not everybody. Record labels are churning out far too much pop and rock product for TRL to handle. "We only have five days a week to premiere things," says MTV music and talent VP Tom Calderone, who heads the network's weekly music meetings, in which an approximately 20-person committee decides which videos will make the cut. And though the labels may lobby hard for airtime ("It's very precious real estate and everybody's vying for it," says Weiss; "We fight every day to get our stuff on there," says Fisher), many seemingly TRL-friendly acts, teen popsters like Epic's Mandy Moore or Warner Bros.' Michael Fredo, have yet to be granted TRL world premieres. Not that they should send the network gift baskets to help their cause. "There's no way to schmooze," remarks Calderone. "The only schmoozing you can do is what you put on the screen."

If there's an implicit challenge in those words, MTV faces its own in keeping TRL relevant when, as some bizzers predict, bubblegum acts like Britney and the Backstreet Boys give way to rock & roll again. "We're in a period where we have a very active audience that reacts immediately to the exposure of new music," says RCA's Rovner. "Rock music takes longer." So what does that mean for Carson and Co.? Daly's undaunted. "Everybody's talking about how there's going to be a big resurgence in rock," he says. "It doesn't matter what happens within music. This show has the bare bones to support it."

Originally posted Oct 22, 1999 Published in issue #508 Oct 22, 1999 Order article reprints
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