You Wrote It, You Watch It

By the late 1980s, MTV had begun moving away from its original format as a continuous music video channel due to declining ratings. In an effort to improve audience retention, MTV shifted its programming in the early 1990s to include reality shows. By the mid-1990s, non-music content had come to occupy a significant portion of the channel's schedule. The network's most consequential step in this direction came in 1992 with the premiere of The Real World, MTV's first reality program. The program also starred all 11 members of The State, a comedy troupe that had formed at New York University in the late 1980s. The members included Kevin Allison, Michael Ian Black, Robert Ben Garant, Todd Holoubek, Michael Jann, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Thomas Lennon, Joe Lo Truglio, Ken Marino, Michael Showalter and David Wain. == Program Overview & Structure ==

You Wrote It, You Watch It is a half-hour sketch comedy program that adapts viewer-submitted letters into short comedic segments. The show is fast-paced in style, frequently punctuated by sound effects and clips from outside media. Its humor is notably crude and risqué, leaning into adult themes and irreverent presentation. The show consists of eight episodes, all organized around a theme, as the episode's title indicates. All sketches and letters featured for a given installment connect back to that central topic. A typical episode follows a consistent structure. Stewart opens the show with a cold open introducing the episode's central theme, and a title card formalizes the theme. Then, the opening sequence plays, consisting of bright flashing colors and graphics and ending on a humorous disclaimer. The bulk of each episode consists of viewer mail segments, each beginning with a graphic identifying the letter-writer's name and location, followed by a dramatized sketch based on the letter's contents. Stewart serves as the show's host between segments, often adding commentary on the previous sketch or the episode's central theme. He returns at the end of the episode to close out the show, followed by credits. == Cancellation & Legacy ==

MTV cancelled You Wrote It, You Watch It after a single season. Referencing the show's low viewership, Stewart later remarked, "You wrote it, you just didn't watch it!" The State went on to star in their own MTV series, also titled The State, which aired on the network from 1994 to 1995. Members of the troupe subsequently collaborated on a number of television and film projects, including Viva Variety, Reno 911! and the Wet Hot American Summer franchise. Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black and David Wain went on to form the sketch comedy group Stella, which had its own Comedy Central series in 2005. Joe Lo Truglio later joined the main cast of the NBC sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which ran from 2013 to 2021. ==References==