At the time that you’re reading this, there’s a good chance that an episode of the comedy clip show “Ridiculousness” is airing on MTV.
On Saturday, the show will fill 10 hours of MTV’s airwaves. On Sunday, 12 hours. And 14 on Monday.
But MTV’s “Ridiculousness” era — endlessly airing reruns of the same program, a strategy that many other channels adopted as cable lost subscribers, revenue, ratings, ambition and relevance — appears to be coming to an end.
A spokesman for the company confirmed on Friday that “Ridiculousness” had been canceled after a 14-year run. The network will continue to air previously produced episodes into 2026, and its reruns, at least for now, will still consume much of the network’s schedule. Variety reported the news earlier.
“Ridiculousness” is a low-budget show that airs viral videos from the internet and features a small panel of people who riff and make jokes about the videos. Its host, Rob Dyrdek, once described the show as a “cool version of ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos.’”
But “Ridiculousness” soon became representative of a chapter in media when industry executives seemed to have given up on cable.
It was not that long ago that cable networks like MTV, USA, TBS and Comedy Central had robust original programming lineups. None of these networks were above airing marathons of movies like “Jaws” or shows like “Law & Order: SVU,” but usually that complemented a lineup of ambitious original series like “Monk,” “Key & Peele” or “The Real World.”
About five years ago, though, executives in charge of MTV pulled back spending, and the “Ridiculousness” marathons commenced. Social media feeds that used to blast out MTV’s weekly lineup revealed, in color-coded splendor, how the network had turned itself almost entirely into a rerun factory.
(It proved to be lucrative. Bloomberg reported this week that the network paid Mr. Dyrdek at least $32.5 million a year.)
Other cable executives soon turned to MTV’s playbook rerouting their cable investments into their new streaming services and leaving their channels with rerun marathons. The reruns, they argued, simply garnered better ratings than anything else they had.
But some analysts also believe that those executives sharply accelerated cable’s demise, turning off advertisers, viewers and subscribers at a quicker pace than was necessary.
Several of those media companies are now turning their back entirely on cable. NBCUniversal is about to spin off most of its cable channels into a separate company. Warner Bros. Discovery is planning to do the same, unless someone buys the company first.
Executives at Paramount, which is under new ownership, said they planned to to keep MTV and its stable of cable networks and try to figure out how to wring new life into them. Andy Gordon, Paramount’s chief strategy officer, said this year “that there’s probably a place outside of the linear world where these brands exist and are invested in and flourish.”
“Ridiculousness” will not be part of the rejuvenation effort.
John Koblin covers the television industry for The Times.
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