It’s been almost a decade since anyone watched TRL and since then everything about its primary foci—music videos, celebrity culture, TV consumption—has changed. So when the network announced in July that it was bringing back its afternoon music-video countdown show, the prevailing question was: “Why?” TRL , the MTV show formerly known as Total Request Live , went off the air in 2008. On November 16 of that year, to be exact; Beyoncé performed its swan song.

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