1996–1999: Early history as M2 MTV2 began broadcasting as simply
M2 on August 1, 1996 – MTV's 15th anniversary – with
Beck's "
Where It's At" being the first video to air. A near "flip side" of MTV, the original format focused mostly on music and aimed at a slightly older audience (23-year-olds than MTV's 21-year-olds), especially people who do not watch a lot of MTV. In its first few years on the air, M2 was restricted to
satellite television plus the few, small markets where digital cable was then available, limiting its audience reach to around 12 million homes by 2000. M2 also broadcast live over the internet during its early years, which meant it was similarly ahead of its time in a period when few people had
broadband internet connections. M2 quickly gained favor with music insiders, and as its popularity and reputation grew within the music industry, it became common for musicians and record labels to request that their new videos premiere exclusively on M2 rather than MTV. Record companies often asked to have new artists appear on the channel in taped segments with the VJs. The
Spice Girls made their first U.S. television appearance on M2, as did their video for "
Wannabe". At the time of their appearance on M2, the
girl group was a huge success in the
United Kingdom, but they were relatively unknown to U.S. audiences. Starting on January 1, 2000, in honor of the millennium, MTV2 attempted to play every music video in the MTV library in alphabetical order. Starting on January 1, 2001, all households that had received The Box began to receive MTV2 in its place, putting the channel into millions of additional households. MTV2 also began adding
television commercials to its broadcasts; beforehand, subscription providers interrupted MTV2's feed to insert their own ads. Another new show called
Control Freak began in 2001, airing weekdays from 8 to 9 p.m. It used real-time viewer voting to select the next video to be played on the channel (out of three choices), while the current video was playing. The majority of the daytime schedule still featured a mix of rap, rock, and pop genre videos. By 2003, the network had 50 million subscribers in the United States. During the
Memorial Day weekend of 2002, MTV2 played a special called
Increase The Beat. DJ
Paul Oakenfold hosted the special and played videos from such artists as
Fatboy Slim,
Beastie Boys, and
Jay-Z. The videos were arranged in order from slowest to fastest, based on the number of beats per minute of the song. In 2003, Jesse Snider, son of
Twisted Sister's
Dee Snider was selected as the new host of
MTV2 Rock, replacing Abby Gennet. Another new program included
Track 2, a series going "behind the scenes" of music videos, and
Nose Dive, profiling past popular artists. In May of that year, MTV2 relaunched the old MTV program
Headbangers Ball, which featured a wide array of heavy metal and hard rock music videos. followed by
Rob Zombie for the next few weeks. In June, MTV2 began an eight-hour block of hip-hop programming on Sundays called
Sucker Free Sunday. Each week, a different guest host served up
Artist Collections, countdowns, and other hip-hop music specials. Around this time, MTV2 sponsored two albums in the
MTV2 Album Covers series, in which a band covers another band's songs. The first was
Dashboard Confessional/R.E.M., and the second was
Guster/Violent Femmes. In early February 2004, MTV2 started to air
Beavis and Butt-Head as a part of its regular programming and its MTV2OONS block, marking the first time the series had aired on TV in the US since around August 1999 on MTV.
2005–2011: The two-headed dog until the closure on March 29, 2024. In 2005, MTV2 rebranded with a new logo: a two-headed
Rottweiler dog.
Billboard reported that the double heads of the dog were made to represent rock and hip-hop, the two sides of music on MTV2. From February 2007, MTV2 began scaling down music programming as a result of its production staff being reduced. MTV2 would later devote Saturday evenings to rock music, usually during the
primetime hours on Saturdays, but currently the block is shown on late Saturday evenings starting at 10:00 p.m. Other formats included a 30-minute block of videos that aired in the early mornings and late nights, as well as the
No Break Video Hour, a music video block that excluded
commercials, Tuesdays through Thursdays at 10:00 a.m. Music programming was briefly expanded in June. From 4:30 p.m. on June 29 to 1:00 a.m. on July 1, 2007, MTV2 played strictly
music videos, whether a general block of videos or a specific genre-based block such as
Headbangers Ball (
heavy metal) or
Sucker Free (
hip-hop), for 33 hours and 30 minutes. Throughout the month of July 2007, MTV2 broadcast music video programs during
primetime Mondays through Thursdays in its efforts to play more music. In February 2008, MTV2 replaced the 10 p.m. Eastern rebroadcast of
Elite 8 with a standard block of music videos. 2008 saw decreased availability for MTV2, as both
Comcast and
Cox Communications moved the channel from their widely received analog cable services to
digital cable.
2011–2017: Further success with original programming In 2011, MTV debuted a new original series called
Guy Code on November 15. The series closed out its first season as the highest-rated program in network history, amassing significant time period increases among MTV2's core male demographic with a 55% increase among men 12–34 and massive 188% increase in viewership among male teens, as well as a 44% increase among 12- to 34-year-olds overall. The second season of
Guy Code closed out its sophomore run on September 25, 2012, as MTV2's highest-rated and most-watched original series ever. Music programming was seen during the
AMTV2 block, which aired Monday-Fridays from 4 to 9 a.m. AMTV2 was blocked in as "MTV2 Jams", which runs from 4AM-8AM Eastern, and "MTV2 Music Mix" (known on-air as
Morning Music Buzz), which runs from 8AM-9AM Eastern. "Jams" primarily features hip-hop music videos, while "Music Mix" features a mixture of hip-hop, rock, and alternative videos. On October 28, 2012, MTV2 relaunched its
Sucker Free series as
The Week in Jams, followed by additional airings on
MTV Jams. Where
Sucker Free Countdown focused primarily on music, the expanded focus of
The Week in Jams includes interviews, fashion trends, music, sports and hip-hop lifestyle. MTV recruited a stable of hip hop contributors to serve as the hosts of
The Week in Jams and to provide expert commentary across MTV's channels including: mixtape legend, radio personality and television host DJ Envy; industry insider, radio personality and cast member of ''MTV2's Guy Code'' Charlamagne Tha God;
Motown Records recording artist and songwriter Sofi Green; insider Maestro; and radio personality and nationally syndicated nighttime radio host Nessa, to join MTV hip hop expert and MTV News correspondent,
Sway Calloway. The show hasn't been seen on MTV2's schedule since late 2013.
MTV Clubland, an EDM block on the flagship network, premiered on March 30, 2013; it continued to be seen on
AMTV. MTV2 next debuted
Nitro Circus Live, an original series featuring 17-time
X Games medalist
Travis Pastrana and his sports-adventure troupe bridging the gap between extreme sports and unabashed daredevil antics, on March 27, 2012 . The first season of
Nitro Circus Live became MTV2's highest-rated original series among the network's core demographic of men 12–34 since 2006, delivering an average rating of .42 and a 50% time period increase versus the year prior. In addition, the first season improved its prior year time period by 27%. On May 22, 2012, MTV2 premiered the comedic game show
Hip Hop Squares, a revitalization of the iconic game show
Hollywood Squares that featured an original style and personality tailor-made for the network's audience. The show stayed true to the tic-tac-toe format of the original game show, while infusing it with well-known personalities in hip-hop culture. A reboot of the series would premiere on
VH1 in 2016. In addition, MTV2 brought back
The Dub Magazine Project for a second season on October 28, 2012, to give viewers a unique and rarely seen glimpse into the lives and deepest obsessions of entertainment and sports personalities. 2013 saw MTV2 expand its original programming slate further with the premieres of
Mac Miller and the Most Dope Family, the
Guy Code spinoff,
Guy Court; ''Ain't that America
and Charlamagne and Friends
. After a six-year hiatus, a revival of Wild 'n Out'' premiered on July 9, 2013. The premiere episode of season five had 1.1 million total viewers, the highest-rated telecast in the network's history. During this time, MTV2 introduced a new version of the "Two-Headed Dog" logo, with the channel's name rendered in a new font. In 2014, MTV2 debuted ''Jobs That Don't Suck
, a show spotlighting young entrepreneurs, and the weekly series Off the Bat from the MLB Fan Cave'', created from MTV's partnership with
Major League Baseball. On November 11, 2014, MTV2 renewed ''Wild n' Out
& Guy Code
and greenlit two new series: a comedic game show, MTV2's Joking Off
, and a news satire series under the working title Number 2 News
. Weeks after the announcement that the NBCUniversal-owned cable network, G4, will be shutting down, MTV2 began syndicating the Marvel Anime'' anthology, which previously aired on the former network. Because of the popularity of MTV2's original programming, the network was listed as one of Comedy Hype's
20 Game Changers of Comedy of 2015.
Joking Off premiered on April 1, 2015, and
Number 2 News, renamed
Not Exactly News, premiered on June 17, 2015. In the Summer of 2015, MTV2 debuted the reality series, ''
Kingin' with Tyga, and panel show, Uncommon Sense with Charlamagne''.
2017–present: Viacom restructuring Because of Viacom's 2017 restructuring, in which most of the company's resources were directed towards the flagship MTV network, MTV2 currently has no original programming. In the previous year, several of MTV2's remaining original programs moved to MTV. As promotion for the
2025 MTV Video Music Awards, MTV2 scheduled a full week of only music video programming from September 1 to the night of the event on September 7, alongside
MTV Classic,
MTV Live, and MTV Biggest Pop on
Pluto TV. It was the first time MTV2 had played music videos since 2017. The week was produced by
Van Toffler and his studio
Gunpowder & Sky. ==Programming==