RELATED: Sean Atkins On Making Audiences Want Their MTV Again

In a surprise move, MTV president Sean Atkins has resigned his position one year after joining the network.

Atkins, who was behind the struggling network’s move back to its music roots, informed staffers Monday in an internal memo that he would be leaving the Viacom-owned network but would remain as a consultant on the transition through January in an advisory role.

Atkins, who was hired last September after coming over from Discovery Communications, vowed to make MTV more music-friendly as he looked to turn around the network’s ratings fortunes and to make the network more appealing to its core millennial audience. 

It is unclear who will replace Atkins as the head of MTV.

Atkins’ memo appears below:

I apologize for the shock to your Monday morning, but I have some news to share that will come as a surprise.  I have decided to step down from my post as President of MTV.  I’ll be consulting on the transition through January in an advisory role.

I will leave it to Doug to fill you in on the details, but suffice it to say this was in no way an easy decision for me.  This has been an incredibly enriching and rewarding experience, and I thank every single one of you for that.  I am so proud of what this team has accomplished together.  We’ve filled the creative pipeline with so many new projects and producers.  Amazing projects like Sweet/Vicious, Stranded with a Million Bucks, Signed and Going Off are just around the corner. We’ve moved aggressively to recapture music as our muse with projects like Made in Compton, Wonderland and Virtually Famous just to name a few. We’re taking the time and care to do smart thinking around the brand and vision for MTV, including bringing in new media and creative agencies to back our new brand campaign.  We’ve continued to invest into our future with the successful growth of our Snapchat Discover channel, social footprint and MTV News.  And we’ve continued to be an incredible social voice with our Elect This campaign and launch of our new documentary unit.  This tremendous creative effort is a recipe for success and it will pay off.

I’m so deeply impressed with the team here and so grateful to have been part of it.  You have unbelievable drive and dedication, unstoppable creative passion and are relentlessness in attacking challenges from every possible angle.  This speaks volumes about the amazing MTV culture and your commitment to this brand.

Thank you so much, and a special word of thanks to my incredible senior team, for pushing and inspiring me every day.

You will all be in very good hands as I move on, I assure you.  And I promise I will be watching and cheering as you continue to build up from the great foundation we created together. 

MTV is going back to the future by returning to its music roots under president Sean Atkins. It’s slating several new music-infused shows, including Wonderland, its first live performance series in decades, with hopes of drawing in its target audience of millennials. Atkins, who joined the Viacom-owned network last September from a digital-media executive role at Discovery Communications, discussed his plans put the music back into MTV with Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead.

MTV:How do you define the MTV brand?

Sean Atkins: MTV is a brand that was born from the creative spirit of music, and what that really means is that you are of the pop culture; you’re doing the unexpected, because music is constantly evolving; you’re always relevant to youth, because music is a big part of them and how they evolve; and it makes you artist-oriented. That’s a lot of what we’re leaning into heavily.

In no uncertain terms does that mean that Sean is looking to bring back music videos — we are inspired by music, but we are not a video-music genre network.

MTV:How will the reintroduction of music affect the current status of the network’s lineup, which features mostly scripted series and reality content?

SA: I wish I had a magical time machine and psychic powers to answer that in perfect ratio. Ideally, in a perfect world, I would love to say every show would have an obvious music component. The question is what is the right measurement of how dead-on music programming we develop versus music-influenced programming versus programming that’s playing in pop culture.

I think the answer to that will be an always-moving thing. Obviously, as you’re turning around a network, you never abandon any hits. Ideally, when you tune in you’ll see the hits that have been holding the network up, but you’ll also see a lot of new shows on the air.

MCN:Given that most young people listen to and watch music on the Web, will MTV be fighting an uphill battle to get those viewers to tune into the network to watch music shows likeWonderland?

SA: I don’t think so. We’re taking a very experiential, multiplatform approach to it. Yes, music is on digital platforms, but I think what we’re doing with shows like Wonderland is providing viewers a chance to get discover new music and get that music in the context of what’s happening in pop culture. That’s the spin that we’re putting on it — to make it a linear relevance and then allowing viewers to participate socially as we put it out on a multiplatform basis.

MCN:MTV has also rebranded some of its other music-themed services — Palladia to MTV Live, for example. Will we continue to see a rebranding of other services?

SA: We have a five-network slate in the MTV family, and we are always looking at how we make those channels the most suitable to our audience and to our partners. The questions you should always ask yourself when you are a programmer is, is this a voice that’s resonating with our audience and is there a segment of the audience that we could better overserve, or is there something that we’re not doing for our audience?

I think MTV Live is the first version of that where it’s us putting the “M” back in MTV. There’s a segment of our audience that really wants live performance and documentaries, so we can superserve that audience with one of our networks versus just trying to make MTV the core brand to try and superserve all viewer niches.

MCN:How concerned are you about the trend of millennials watching less linear television as you look to build MTV’s linear audience?

SA: There’s no question that the demo that I speak to consumes more and more video content than ever before. The issue is a business structure problem, which is way out of my pay grade. The first and last question I begin and end the day with is, “Do I understand what my audience wants, and are we making great creative that gets them excited?” But I do run a large brand that has global ramifications, so we do, of course, think about the long-term ramifications of where the audience is going and think about platforms.

The blessing is that MTV is one of the most multiplatform brands that has been built in this business. We already had built before I got here a huge footprint of speaking to these audiences. The big brands that stand for things have a low probability of imploding and disappearing, but rather they’ll follow their audience and follow the business models. I don’t think that’s any different from what our long-term path is.

MTV continued to build its executive ranks under new president Sean Atkins Thursday with the announcement of several new hires and appointments.

The network has named former Major League Baseball chief marketing officer Jacqueline Parks as its executive vice president of marketing and creative, overseeing MTV’s marketing efforts on all platforms, according to network officials.

MTV has also hired former Lifetime head of non-fiction programming Eli Lerner to oversee MTV2 as executive vice president.

“Jacqueline is a bona fide game-changer whose transformational brand leadership and fan engagement bridged pro baseball’s storied past with its innovative future.  Her vision and experience will be invaluable as we reinvigorate MTV,” said Atkins, who came to MTV in September from Discovery Digital Networks.  “Eli is one of the sharpest, most versatile and well-respected creative executives in the business.  We’re thrilled to give him a homecoming to Viacom and a great canvas for his talents at MTV2.”

The network also appointed MTV and VH1 veteran Kristin Frank to Executive Vice President of Strategy, Revenue & Operations, and moved former Executive Vice President of Viacom Music & Entertainment Group Erik Flannigan, to MTV full in the newly created roll of Executive Vice President of Music/Events Strategy & Development. 

The moves follow MTV’s recent hires of Michael Klein as Executive Vice President of Original Content and Laurel Weir as Senior Vice President of Strategic Insights and Research.

MTV will look to attract millennials with a different beat, adding more music-themed programming – including the network’s first live music show in two decades -- to its lineup of scripted and reality fare, the network said prior to its upfront presentation Thursday in New York.

RELATED:MTV Acknowledges Prince's Passing During Upfront

Under the leadership of new president Sean Atkins, MTV will return to its music roots 35 years after it launched as a music video-based network. The network’s 2016-17 programming slate of 14 new series and specials will feature several shows offering a music/pop culture theme, beginning with the series Wonderland, a weekly show that will feature live musical performances along with comedic performances, according to the network.

“We’re on a mission to reignite MTV with everything that makes it one of the world’s most iconic brands  – its soul of music, its love of pop culture, and its unexpected, groundbreaking creative,” said Atkins in a statement. “What we share today is just the beginning, but it’s a strong first step in the journey and shows how aggressively we are moving to energize the extraordinary promise of this great brand.”

Along with Wonderland, the network announced several other new music-themed, series including a yet-untitled competition series from prolific unscripted series producer Mark Burnett and a reboot of its classic music series MTV Unplugged.

The network will also develop new projects with such music celebrities as rapper Pitbull (Miami-based drama 305) and John Legend (hip-hop comedy It’s the Real).

Among other new shows greenlit by MTV are Sweet/Vicious, a dark one-hour dramedy about odd-couple vigilantes avenging sexual assault victims on a college campus; The Outsiders (working title), a docuseries following families living on the fringes of society; Acting Out, a series in which hilarious stand-up routines are reenacted; Mary + Jane, a comedy about enterprising weed dealers navigating L.A. hipster culture; Shinesty (working title), a docuseries on the outrageous upstart millennial fashion brand; MTV’s The Investigation (working title), which follows the legal cases of the wrongfully convicted; Stranded With a Million Bucks, a reality competition series that employs drone cameras; Loosely Exactly Nicole, a scripted comedy starring and adapted from the life of Girl Code alum Nicole Byer; Going Off (working title), a dance docuseries set in the studio of master choreographer Tricia Miranda; and The Almost Impossible Game Show, a new competition format adopted from the hit UK version.

On the social media front, MTV will bring back its classic series Cribs on Snapchat Discover, one of two new series slated for that service. Artists Mac Miller, Austin Mahone and Travis Mills will be among the first celebrities on the reboot, which will feature a tour of a celebrity’s home in each episode, MTV said.

The second Snapchat series, Pants Off, is an 8-episode series on sex and relationships hosted by MTV Braless host Laci Green.

MTV Wednesday appointed former Discovery Communications digital executive Sean Atkins as the network’s new president.

Atkins, who replaces former MTV president Stephen Friedman -- who announced his decision to leave the company hours earlier -- will oversee all creative and business operations for the youth-targeted network as well as its sister networks MTV2 and mtvU, said MTV officials. 

Most recently, Atkins served as general manager and executive vice president of digital media and strategy for Discovery, where he was responsible for driving the company’s original online video strategy and networks including Revision3, SourceFed, Discovery News, and TestTube, said MTV.  

Atkins will report to Doug Herzog, President of the Viacom Music and Entertainment Group. MTV Executive Vice President and Head of Scripted Development Mina Lefevre and Head of Reality Programming and Executive Vice President of Series Development Lauren Dolgen will report directly to Atkins. 

“Sean is smart, creative, passionate, and remarkably energized about the sea change at hand in our industry,” said Herzog in a statement. “The strength of MTV lies in its ability to constantly reinvent, and Sean’s forward-thinking, versatile leadership will ensure our brand and business continue to evolve and deliver for our audience.”