11 Of The Best MTV Shows We Were Obsessed With In The 00s

Before Love Island took over as our favourite reality show, MTV was the home of the most addictive shows on TV.

They’d air from the time we got home from school to the time we went to bed, and there was plenty on Saturdays to keep us entertained too.

From bratty teenagers to cruel daters, we’re taking a look at the best MTV shows from the noughties.

My Super Sweet 16

Who could forget the hugely popular show in which bitchy, bratty fifteeny-year-olds planned the biggest night of their young lives. They’d fly to Paris to get their dresses and get Pitbull to perform on the night (before we knew who he was). They always seemed a lot older than a mere fifteen. Their dads always stayed quiet and handed over the cheque while a lot of the time the mams took it upon themselves to make the day about them. What a great show.

Next

Perhaps the cruelest, quickest dating show on TV. Next did exactly what it says on the tin. The girl or guy would go on a series of dates with up to five people, who all sat in an RV bus waiting to be called. If the guy or girl didn’t think the date was going well, they’d literally just should NEXT! and the next person would come out of the bus for a date. Harsh? Yes! Do we wish we could do it in real life? Also yes! If the date was going well, the contestant could ask to go on a second date to which the other person could either say yes to, OR they could take a dollar for every minute the date lasted! I think we’d take 18 dollars over going on a date with a man who shouted NEXT at a nice girl we bonded with in the RV, but who knows?!

Made

“I wanna be bigger, I wanna be stronger, I wanna be better… I wanna be MADE!” If this rings any bells for you, you may too have been obsessed with makeover show Made on MTV. The concept was simple, a teen has a goal and wants to be ‘made’ into something like a singer, an athlete, a dancer, or bodybuilder. They were given seemingly not a whole lot of time to achieve their goal, while being assigned a Made coach who would hand out some tough love when they felt like quitting. The episode would end with a big event where they would showcase their new thing, be it a talent show, a prom or a concert. We were always rooting for them.

 

The Osbournes

When we were too young to know that Ozzy wasn’t just Kelly and Jack’s dad, we obsessed over the Osbourne family. The show followed Sharon and Ozzy and two of their kids as they worked on various projects and had plenty of fights. There was a lot of cursing, so there were scenes that seemed to be bleep after bleep. It didn’t matter though, we still adored it for some reason.

 

Hogan Knows Best

While we dabbled in some WWE viewing, many of us will know Hulk Hogan from his reality show Hogan Knows Best. It followed Hogan, whose real name is Terry, along with his wife Linda, son Nick and daughter Brooke. Hulk was always super protective over Brooke and didn’t approve of anyone she dated. We specifically remember her having a really pretty princess bedroom. She later got her own spin-off show called Brooke Knows Best in which she works on her music and dance career. We wonder what she’s up to now…

Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica

Though the show was short-lived we were obsessed with watching 98 Degrees singer Nick Lachey and singer Jessica Simpson in their first few years of marriage. Poor Jessica didn’t come across the best, and show bosses really played up the ‘dumb blonde’ trope. It lasted three seasons between 2003 and 2005 but the couple divorced in 2006. Fun Fact: The show was originally intended for Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley after their marriage in 1994, but the couple decided not to continue with the project after the start of pre-production.

Room Raiders

The show that would make you want to give your room a serious scrub, we adored Room Raiders. The show featured three men or women who were essentially kidnapped and put into the back of a van, so they’d have no time to clean their rooms. The prospective dater would then go into each of the contestant’s rooms and look around, and we mean really look around, with a blue light and everything. They’d look through their DVD collection, underwear drawers and under the bed to see what they could find before choosing the person they wanted to date based on the best bedroom. For some, cuddly toys were a massive turn off, while for others it meant the person was sweet or sensitive, it just depended on what they were looking for. What a wild show!

Pimp My Ride

“So you wanna be a player, but your wheels ain’t fly. You gotta hit us up, to get a pimp’t out ride.” The concept was simple, a young person would submit a video of their banger of a car to host Xzibit (or X to the Z Xzibit as he would say himself) and he’d then surprise them by giving it an incredible makeover including a groovy paint job, fancy alloys and some ridiculous gadgets like a PlayStation or MP3 player. In more recent years contestants have come out and said a lot of it was just for the show and that many of the cool bits were taken back out. Awks.

Cribs

MTV UK is giving the show a reboot this year, but with British reality stars. We can’t help to feel it’ll be on a much lower scale than the Mariah Carey, Hugh Heffner, 50 Cent style episodes. We were obsessed with this show as teens. Celebs would bring us on a tour of their homes which usually included at least six cars, a huge pool and beautiful garden, and a games room or room full of random collectable items. We are arguably more obsessed with homes and interiors in 2019, so we reckon this is the perfect time to bring the US version back.

 

Boiling Points

If ever there was a show that taught us not to lose our temper too quickly it was MTV Boiling Points. The premise was pretty simple: Put some unassuming people in an annoying situation and see if they could refrain from freaking out. If they managed to keep their cool, they’d be awarded $100 on the spot. We can’t metion this show without discussing the episode in which Stefani Germanotta got a discusting plate of food, and got annoyed at the waitress (which, fair enough, tbh) and didn’t win the money. They wouldn’t serve that to her today though, now that she’s become superstar Lady Gaga!

Punk’d 

Before Ashton Kutcher was Mila Kunis’ fella he was the host of Punk’d. Sure, we knew him from That 70s Show but we really got to know Ashton as the prank-loving rascal who would trick some of the world’s biggest celebs into thinking something awful happened. The pranks varied from the celeb’s car being stolen to fake earthquakes. Yikes! In hindsight, many of the pranks probably weren’t great for the mental health of the celebs but it all worked out in end, and the show usually ended with a celeb running around cursing and laughing in shock at the prank that had just been pulled, so they seemed okay. We’ll never get over Justin Timberlake crying over his house seemingly being repossessed though, and we bet he won’t either.

Ah nostalgia… Bring back the golden years of MTV reality TV!

Tags:

• MTV
• My Super Sweet 16
• Punk'd