Music: {allcanada} Did Justin Bieber save MTV's 'The Hard Times of RJ Berger?'

Monday, August 2, 2010

{allcanada} Did Justin Bieber save MTV's 'The Hard Times of RJ Berger?'

There's no limit to the power of Justin Bieber. With just a few words, he may have even saved MTV's "The Hard Times of RJ Berger."

TV Guide reports that the network's decision to renew the scripted series for another 12 episodes comes on the heels of a jump in ratings -- a jump that happened after an endorsement tweet from Bieber.

The tweet in question, from July 19, came in at a near-capacity 135 characters: "Just met the guys who created that new show on @MTV "The Hard Times of #RJBerger" -- good dudes. Show's on tonight at 10pm. Funny stuff."

That night ratings were up 9 percent. And a week after that, they were up an additional 14 percent from the episode before Bieber took to Twitter.

Co-creator and executive producer David Katzenberg seems grateful for any role Bieber had in their renewal. "'Hard Times' is a word-of-mouth show and kids are not in school right now where they would be talking about it," he tells TV Guide. "That's a problem for us, but Bieber's fans are insanely loyal and I think it's rubbing off on our show."