A Typical Day At ‘Total Request Live’ Is Hardly Spontaneous

Breanne L. Heldman of The New York Daily News spent a day at MTV Studios in Times Square to get a behind the scenes look at ‘Total Request Live’. Heldman says that despite the show’s anything-goes appearance, everything about ‘TRL’ is planned. Ahead of the 5 PM show, the hosts and guests take part in rehearsal at 3:30 PM and the questions posed by audience members to guest celebs are conveniently written on index cards. “We’ve given away a million dollars on the show … we’ve shut down Times Square,” explains episode producer Rob Dixter. “We rehearse all that kind of stuff because to just go live and do that is a little scary.”