12 Angry Viewers
The "12 Angry Viewers" were selected from 18 to 24-year-old MTV viewers who auditioned at MTV Studios in New York City. Through the course of a week they would watch several "brand new" videos and vote at the end of the episode which was the best. On Friday the best video out of the four chosen during the week was chosen and put into "heavy rotation" on the network. In actuality the 12 viewers filmed five episodes over the course of one day, after being selected from a group of walk-in auditioners who did a "test viewing" in an observed room. Some auditions were held on campuses or locations for special events such as spring break. There were also shows in which the viewer decided which video would get "banned" from being played on MTV. The first recipient of this honor would go to Gina G's 1996 single "Ooh Aah... Just a Little Bit" in 1998. However, this video was only played on select shows such as "The Grind" and never saw a lot of rotation on the channel. The show was on during a period when MTV was being heavily criticized for not playing as many music videos as it had in the past. In an attempt to remedy this problem, 4 shows were created that centered on videos: "12 Angry Viewers", "MTV Live", "Say What?", and "Total Request". "MTV Live" and "MTV Total Request" would later be combined into "MTV Total Request Live", or simply "TRL". "Say What?" would be turned into a Karaoke competition game show and renamed "Say What? Karaoke". But "12 Angry Viewers" was canceled. MTV Russia had a version of "12 Angry Viewers" called "" which started in 1999 sporadically until present with several different styles and hosts. Some season were "in which intellectuals and others debate music videos. " In 2013, Louis Virtel wrote for NewNowNext that the show was #7 of MTV's 10 Most Underrated Series where members "fought over which clips ruled the roost" and "see fabulous vids by Bjork, Portishead, or Daft Punk." In 2015, James Sheldon wrote for Fame10 placing it at #9 on Worst MTV Produced Shows because, "The viewers were coached to be outspoken, controversial if necessary and highly energetic. This made the show insufferable. "
Premise
Winning videos were then shown more often on MTV.