Some people like to claim that MTV’s heyday was back when it actually showed music, rather than the reality TV programming. Those people have clearly never watched MTV Cribs, the crown jewel of the televised aughts, featuring celebrities showing off their homes. Among other things, it produced the spectacle of Mariah Carey bathing in a towel and Ja Rule casually partying with Redman, Lucacris, and Vin Diesel in a house that apparently wasn’t his.
The show, which first aired in 2000, hasn’t put out new episodes in some time, but thankfully, that’s about to change. According to Variety, MTV is planning to revive Cribs on Snapchat. It will reportedly launch in June and feature weekly episodes. The first hosts will include Mac Miller, Austin Mahone, and Travis Mills. I do not know who these people are, so hopefully MTV is hiding better celebrities in its back pocket. Maybe teens know, though.
While the original version was pretty straightforward — a camera crew followed each celebrity around as he or she proudly showed off various rooms, cars, and toys, leaving viewers at home to sadly grapple with the fact that they would never amass that much wealth — the Snapchat version will apparently be a more “intimate experience.”
The Cribs reboot is the first thing to come along thus far that makes some sense for Discover, Snapchat’s attempt at bringing editorial content to users. MTV launched its Discover channel in February — and other outlets launched way before that — but most of them suck. Cribs, at least, is a good use of the feature. (Also, Viacom, MTV’s parent company, recently inked an advertising deal with Snapchat, so, you know, get those dollars!)
We haven’t seen it yet, so it’s entirely possible that the revival will be terrible, especially if Austin Mahone is the best MTV can come up with. (Seriously, should I know who he is?) But I will hold out hope until proven otherwise, because the world could really use the 2016 version of Aaron Carter wearing a Tupac Shakur t-shirt.