It’s a critique so common, it’s entered the realm of cliché: “Why doesn’t MTV show houses anymore?” “Remember when MTV used to show houses?” “I wish MTV would go back to showing houses.” Well, good news, gramps! Variety reports that MTV is planning reboots of both Cribs and MTV Beach House, two shows that helped the network capture the groundbreaking, looking-at-houses zeitgeist it later abandoned in favor of reality and scripted content based on looking at moms and werewolves.
Cribs launched in 2000 and became a staple of the MTV lineup across its 13 seasons, where it offered viewers rare glimpses inside the homes of celebrities ranging from Usher to Pamela Anderson to Redman. “This is my bedroom,” Snoop Dogg or maybe Mariah Carey said in one of its most memorable episodes. “There’s the bed.” Viewers were repeatedly wowed by the intimate look at all the ways in which the rich and famous lived between four walls, just like them, rather than out in the wilderness. “These are my walls,” Xzibit or possibly Michael Bolton said. “I don’t want to get eaten by bears.”
MTV Beach House debuted in 1993 with host Bill Bellamy, who had regrettably failed to trademark his invented phrase “booty call” and was thus forced to scrape by living in a beach shack with 100 drunk roommates, occasionally talking to Mark Wahlberg. Intermittently, Bellamy would also throw to blocks of music videos, which were mostly composed of Naughty By Nature’s “Hip Hop Hooray” repeated 15 times in a row. During this brief respite from Mark Wahlberg, Bellamy would cast longing looks at the ocean—so near, yet so far away—and wonder what it might be like to just walk into it until the waves crested over his head and everything was blessedly silent. He was later replaced by Carson Daly, who was just happy to be outside.
Still, the times have changed, and with them the means by which we look at houses. The new Cribs and MTV Beach House are both being conceived for Snapchat, a platform beloved by millennials for its ability to send each other pics of houses that then disappear, a symbol of life’s impermanence that really gets today’s teens off.
As elucidated by Matthew Matthew Newcomb—MTV’s vice president of integrated marketing, and a man whose own house is built with bricks of digital disruption and added value content—“Snapchat, Twitter and Facebook Live didn’t even exist when we last opened the MTV Beach House as the ultimate summer hangout for our audience 14 years ago. We’re thrilled to partner with Mountain Dew Spiked Lemonade to bring back the Beach House in a totally updated way that speaks to a new generation of digitally native fans.”
“Bringing back the MTV Beach House is one of those can’t miss moments we love to bring to Dew Nation,” added Chauncey Hamlett, senior director of marketing at Mountain Dew, who lives entirely inside a hashtag. It’s warm in there, and the social engagement from females 18-35 has seen respectable marginal growth in the last quarter.
For all you Dewish nomads and digital natives, restlessly wandering the content desert in search of a new home you can look at in a way that truly speaks to your generation, you can catch the first episode of Cribs this Saturday, June 3. It features DJ Steve Aoki giving a tour of his Las Vegas home with “the deepest pool in all of Vegas,” followed by episodes with pro skateboarder Nyjah Huston and Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller, whose own pools are, comparatively speaking, utter shit and should be embarrassed. And beginning June 8, you can see MTV Beach House play out all summer long via on-air interstitials and MTV’s various digital channels, which you can watch from inside your own house. Don’t just look at your own house though! That’s not part of the deal.