Happy Hour: MTV's Heyday With Tom Freston

Kennedy Saves the World

FOX News Podcasts

Entertainment News, Society & Culture, News Commentary, News

4.5 • 808 Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The ’90s were peak MTV chaos, and Kennedy lived every second of it. But long before the beach houses, VMAs, and Unplugged performances, a wanderlust selling ads for toilet paper helped set the whole thing into motion. Tom Freston, former President and CEO of MTV, and author of Unplugged: Adventures From MTV to Timbuktu, sits down with his former employee for a cocktail and a trip down memory lane, covering everything from his adventures in Afghanistan to the night Kennedy almost got fired. Kennedy Now Available on YouTube: ⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@KennedySavestheWorld⁠ Follow on TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@kennedy_foxnews⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join Kennedy for Happy Hour on Fridays! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWlNiiSXX4BNUbXM5X8KkYbDepFgUIVZj⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to this episode of Kennedy Saves the World.
0:12.0	I'm about to interview my former bosses, bosses, bosses.
0:18.1	Tom Freston was the CEO of MTV Networks when I was there. He went on to become the CEO of
0:25.1	all of Viacom, Paramount, everything under Sumner Redstone was Tom Frestons. And he has written a book
0:33.1	about his adventures. Unplugged Adventures from MTV to Timbuktu, Tom Preston, my old boss.
0:41.2	Welcome to Kennedy Saves the World. My old employee. It's great to be here.
0:46.4	Cheers to you. This is a strawberry paloma. Yeah. Made with strawberry simple syrup and love.
0:53.7	Mmm. Yeah. Damn, that and love. Mmm.
0:55.9	Yeah.
0:57.2	Pam, that's good.
0:59.3	One more sip.
1:01.1	Can't even taste the liquor.
1:03.5	That's my specialty, Tom.
1:09.2	You actually, so I want to go back to the early part of the book, but what really intrigued me, and I almost had you make a drink
1:11.2	because you were fired twice in your life. Once, Sumner, the fickle, mercurial, former head of
1:20.5	Viacom, Paramount, whatever the conglomerate was ultimately called before it sold to Skydance,
1:25.9	he shivd you, harpooned you.
1:28.3	He did.
1:29.3	He harpooned me.
1:30.3	And you were also relieved of duty.
1:32.3	You were a bartender in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
1:35.3	Yes.
	...

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