TRL has been going downhill-- slowly, ever since Carson Daly left the show in 2002. The dark era then began.
Here's a timeline:
Sep. 1998-Jan. 2003: Golden Age
Jan. 2003-May 2007: Renaissance
May 2007-October 18th, 2007: Semi-Dead
October 22nd, 2007-: Dead as a moose.
KoRn has been around even before
TRL was on.
I loved '98 to Jan. '03. The best
TRL era ever, and the ratings were as high as they can be. They also created many careers from Eminem, Limp Bizkit, Sum 41, Christina Aguilera, Jay-Z, Nelly, Avril, POD, Kelly Clarkson, Britney Spears, just to name a few. But then Carson Daly left, and the VJs were good. The MTV News updates (usually from Norris or Pak [2001-2003]) were a nice addition to the show.
Jan. 2003 to May 2007 were 87% good. The ratings slipped a little, but it was fine. Rap began to take a foothold on the countdown, by the likes of 50, Luda, Kanye, OutKast, Chingy, and Akon, just to name a few rappers, and it was good rap, too, unlike Soulja and Hurricane Chris. Maroon 5, Good Charlotte, Chris Brown, AFI, Evanescence, Rihanna, Nelly Furtado, FOB, MCR, Katharine McPhee, and Simple Plan, among a few, were discovered around this time. Damien (who was actually decent back then), Vanessa, Quddus, and Susie were VJs. Also, on the MTV News front, Iann Robinson and Gideon Yago were shown the doors, in 2003 and 2007, respectively. Moreover, SuChin Pak (who is my favorite MTV News correspondent of all-time) got more and more playing time on
TRL, and less and less of John "Steroid Taker" Norris... a good sign for me.
May 2007-October 18th, 2007 was
TRL's Semi-Dead Era. Every single co-host was leaving, and stupid rap (Sean Kingston and Soulja Boy for example) came on to drive away the regulars. If you wanted to make your career from TRL like Eminem and Britney did, you would remain unknown, because almost no one was watching. Then the stupid videos **** during the commericals was stupid. Damien Fahey and his stupid ass humor. What an idiot.
However, on the bright side of the Semi-Dead Era of
TRL, The White Stripes snuck on for 3 days, Carrie Underwood made a miraculous debut, Kat DeLuna, PWTs, and Paula DeAnda made splashes, LP joined in on the fun, and The Academy Is..., Paramore, and the Jonas Brothers made an impact on the
TRL countdown. For the MTV News aspect, Pak did most of the reports during this era, and 2 new correspondents joined MTV... and they were Tim Kash and Kim Stolz (I like both of them on the MTV News bulletins, but Kash is better of the two on
TRL.)
The 4th and most current Era of
TRL is the Dead as a Moose Era.
October 22nd, 2007-present is a shitfest, and started with Soulja as #1 (now is hovering around #5), but the Top 3 has been decent in the last 10
TRL shows. When
TRLwent from Votes-only to other **** with votes, all hell broke loose, and one week of that-- I said enough of the damn format, so I started the
JRL Top 20 in response to the
TRL format change. Also, since October 3rd, 2007, the MTV News reporting has lost most of its quality, legitimitacy, and substance, mainly because SuChin Pak is no longer reporting on MTV News; and if this isn't ****ed-up enough, Pak may have been fired from MTV News for no ******** reason, but face it-- get used to Kash and Stolz on a lot on
TRL reporting.
MTV News should've fired John "Osama Bin Laden" Norris and not my #1 favorite MTV News reporter of all-time (Pak). Stolz and Kash seem to be the 2 main correspondents on TRL, and Sway Calloway has begun to get serious
TRL reps in.
I hope Lyndsey Rodrigues does good as the new VJ. Damien, time to give up your job, and the same goes for "Fascist" Norris. Paramore was cheated out of #1 for
Crushcrushcrush.
Whatever you do, MTV, bring back
TRL to its old state and to give Pak back her
TRL MTV News reporting time-- as much as I wanna see both happen, the former will happen first. The new format has allowed for Alicia Keys, Timbaland, Finger 11, and Nickelback to be on, while Avril, Katharine, and FOB are screwed.
MTV News 1988-Dec. 2007 
TRL: 1998-Oct.18th, 2007
