What Happened To MTV?
by Alex Lloyd Gross
ALEX LLOYD GROSS File Photo Delaware Valley News.com Julie Brown in Bensalem for an MTV rally in 1992.
Effective New Year’s Day, MTV has gone off the air for good. It still exists as MTV U and MTV Classic, but the cornerstone is gone. No new music videos will air. In its place are movies edited for television. Your cable provider may air something else.
Who can remember the uproar in January 1992 when Sammons Cable took MTV off the air over a payment dispute? In its place was something called Video Jukebox. The head of Sammons, Mark Weber, even came to Bensalem to justify the decision his company made. That meeting turned into a humiliating night for Weber, when a packed room berated the executive for two hours. People wanted their MTV.
The network even brought Downtown Julie Brown to Fishers for a dance party and rally. Within two months, Weber had had enough and brought the network back. Unfortunately, MTV turned into a shadow of itself and, in December 2025, disappeared.
Part of the downfall was the dreck that passed for programming. Instead of music videos, viewers were treated to RuPaul and a drag show, overpaid actors engaged in scripted shows about a house in New Jersey, and programs about teen pregnancy.
The main demographic for MTV was kids aged 13 through 23—young adults with money. They bought music, electronics to play that music on, and products to enhance their appearance. All of those items were frequent advertisers on the network.
Viewers wanted music. The problem was MTV played Michael Jackson right next to Iron Maiden, and Kiss right after LL Cool J. Sure, shows like Headbangers Ball and Yo! MTV Raps brought specific genres together, but it was not enough.
They tried Spring Break, where music sensations of the time—like Great White, Mandy Moore, or whoever else was popular—performed in Florida or other hot spots. Jerry Springer hosted game shows where average guys dated women deemed out of their league. That worked out well but they went in different directions. MTV has not hosted a New Years Eve show in over a decade,
Then there were shows like Boiling Point, where someone was given bad news and, if they could go five minutes without cursing or yelling, they would win money. After that, it was back to music for a few hours.
Record companies spent millions on videos in some cases, hoping they would become hits on MTV. In the early 1980s, when MTV launched, it was expected that a band would make at least one video per record.
MTV may still exist online, and music videos will continue to be made, but new ones will not air on that network. MTV Classic and MTV U will not have VJs or other personalities either.