MTV renews “Buckwild”

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MTVMTV has picked up raunchy freshman series Buckwild for a second season. The announcement comes a day before Thursday’s season finale of the hit reality series that ranks as Thursday’s #1 cable series among P12-34.


The half-hour, 12-episode series follows a group of nine young, carefree and adventurous friends living in Sissonville, West Virginia (about 30 miles north of the capital, Charleston) who find unique ways to create their own fun. Since the series premiere last month, Buckwild pulls in an average of 3 million total viewers per episode (Live +3).

It’s a lot of driving trucks dangerously through mud, tearing up the trails on ATVs and motorcycles, drinking (without actually showing labels) fighting with neighbors and each other, and doing Jackass-y stunts that sometimes involve construction equipment.

Additionally, MTV has two of the top three rated cable series of the first quarter of 2013 among P12-34, with “Catfish: The TV Show” as #2 and Buckwild as #3.

Leading into the upcoming season one finale on, MTV will air interstitial interviews with the entire cast from West Virginia throughout the night beginning at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT, as they prepare to watch the end of the first season that introduced them to fans across the country.

Late last year, Buckwild attracted some of the controversy and the political spotlight when Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-WV) called on MTV to “put a stop to the travesty called Buckwild.”

“As a U.S. Senator, I am repulsed at this business venture, where some Americans are making money off of the poor decisions of our youth,” Manchin wrote. “I cannot imagine that anyone who loves this country would feel proud profiting off of ‘Buckwild.’ Instead of showcasing the beauty of our people and our state, you preyed on young people, coaxed them into displaying shameful behavior — and now you are profiting from it. That is just wrong.”

RBR-TVBR observation: We saw the original clip and one episode so far. MTV could pick any town in any state and it would be pretty much the same theme and content with rural folks of this age demo. Manchin shouldn’t think this makes West Virginia itself look bad, and these kids/families are not evil or anything. Jersey Shore seemed much worse if he was wondering.