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Article snippet: On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Chris McCarthy, the newish president of Viacom’s Manhattan headquarters. “When you came into Times Square, you would say, ‘Let’s go to MTV,’” he said, recalling a better time when MTV was, well, relevant. Mr. McCarthy, 42, was looking at the space that used to house “Total Request Live,” the MTV afternoon show from 1998 to 2008 that helped make the host, Carson Daly, a star and was a must-stop destination for musicians, Times Square gawkers and advertisers eager to reach a young audience. That was then. Ratings at MTV in the last five years have nose-dived, turnaround strategies have failed and the cable network’s parent company, Viacom, has watched its stock go into free fall. So, what’s a media executive to do? Apparently, bring back “TRL.” Mr. McCarthy said “TRL” would return in October, and a massive studio facing Times Square was under construction in the hope of capturing the old magic. “If we’re going to come back and reinvent MTV, the studio is a given,” he said. “It is the centerpiece.” It is also the centerpiece in what Mr. McCarthy believes is the beginning of MTV’s comeback. Though many observers say that is a long shot, there have been encouraging signs in recent weeks. Ratings for MTV’s core audience — 18- to 34-year-olds — went up in June and July, the first time the network has experienced back-to-back months of ratings growth in four years. So far, those gains have come courtesy of re-engineered reality shows like... Link to the full article to read more