VH1’s ‘Love & Hip Hop’ franchise scrapped, including Atlanta spinoff

“As we step into this final chapter, we’re making sure our ending hits like it should, for our talent in front of and behind the camera, and for every fan who’s been rocking with us from day one,” said Lashan Browning, executive producer of the upcoming “Love & Hip Hop: The Final Chapter,” in the release. “Once more for the culture.”

“Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” was created in 2012 as a spinoff of the original New York version on VH1, a hip-hop soap opera version of “The Real Housewives” franchise, which remains alive and well on Bravo.

Credit: MTV

Credit: MTV

For a time, the fights, arrests and sundry controversies on the show were hot fodder for social media and bloggers. The Atlanta version in its earliest years drew the biggest ratings in the franchise, often generating 3 million to 4 million viewers a week in the mid-2010s.

The show madestars out of entrepreneurs Rasheeda and Kirk Frost, rap star Lil Scrappy, and singer and actor Karlie Redd. It boosted the career of R&B star K. Michelle, who is now on “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” and broadened the appeal of rappers Waka Flocka Flame and Yung Joc.

Generating plenty of buzz the first six seasons was the on-again, off-again shenanigans of charismatic Stevie J and saucy Joseline Hernandez.

After Hernandez left the show, dance hall artist Spice came in and helped shake up the latter seasons.

“I haven’t paid attention to that show in years,” said Michelle “ATLien” Brown, who used to do “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” recaps on her “Straight from the A” blog and now runs a YouTube channel which focuses more on “Real Housewives of Atlanta” gossip. “I initially bought into it. It was great to see Lil Scrappy and others do something different. But it eventually got old and stale and tired.”

Big Tigger, V-103 morning host who hosted an after-party show one season and appeared on the show a couple of times, said the show “pushed the boundaries of reality TV while giving us some very colorful people and memes to the culture.”

“Love & Hip Hop Atlanta” moved from VH1 to MTV in 2023 while its dwindling viewership steadily shifted off basic cable and onto Paramount+.

Credit: Daniel Varnado/For the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Credit: Daniel Varnado/For the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A few cast membersfrom the peak early years are still on the show, such as Rasheeda, Kirk, Karlie, Scrappy and Yung Joc. The final new episodes are now airing Tuesdays on MTV at 8 p.m. and available the next day on Paramount+. The company has not said when the final episode will air.

Paramount recently announced the end of its seven-year-old BET+ streaming service, incorporating much of its original programming (including several Tyler Perry series) into the main Paramount+ service later this year.

Eric Deggans, critic at large for National Public Radio, didn’t follow the “Love & Hip Hop” shows but said “it’s a shame to see Paramount reducing resources for media which serves Black communities. If anything, given how America is increasingly diversifying, they should be putting more money into programming centered on non-white consumers.”

He noted that Paramount is in cost-cutting mode while trying to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery: “This is what happens when a company takes on a tremendous amount of debt to get bigger. They wind up having to cut things which mean a lot to some people but not as much to the people running the place.”