MTV Renames Video Music Awards 'Moonman' to 'Moonperson'

In a recent interview with The New York Times, MTV's president Chris McCarthy has announced some big shifts in programming as part of his vision to revamp the once-glorious network.

That starts with the return of their hugely popular music video countdown series, Total Request Live, which took place in Times Square and propelled its host, Carson Daly, to stardom. McCarthy's current project is to have a new studio built in that same crowded tourist region of Manhattan.

"If we're going to come back and reinvent MTV, the studio is a given," he explained. "It is the centerpiece."

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The reboot of TRL isn't the only plan McCarthy has to reinvigorate MTV. After making the Movie and TV Award acting categories gender neutral, he'll now be changing the iconic Moonman trophy to a Moon Person, explaining: "Why should it be a man? It could be a man, it could be a woman, it could be transgender, it could be nonconformist."

McCarthy's got a lot of altitude to climb to bring MTV back to its former glory--ratings have plummeted from its heyday in recent years--but this doesn't seem like a bad place to start.

"MTV at its best -- whether it's news, whether it's a show, whether it's a docu-series -- is about amplifying young people's voices," he said. "We put young people on the screen, and we let the world hear their voices.