• by Shankar Gupta , October 24, 2006

MTV's 'Road Rules,' which was canceled in 2004, will be back on the road again next year--this time with new interactive elements.

The new incarnation of the series, which will be produced by reality TV studio Bunim-Murray Productions, has the familiar feature of reality shows where a cast member gets "voted off" the Road Rules RV. On "Road Rules," however, the cast will nominate two of their own number to be "voted off," and then the online audience will select which of those two enter the "elimination challenge."

Web users also select the competitor in the showdown--a "replacement" chosen from a pool of hopefuls that are profiled on MTV.com. The elimination showdown itself will be available exclusively on MTV Overdrive, the network's broadband property.

Other Internet add-ons include cast blogs, interviews, and personal video diaries, which will be available on MTV.com. In addition, cast members will record message updates for mobile distribution.

MTV has been intensifying its broadband efforts this year, launching two new broadband channels in July and creating Web-only codas to its fall TV lineup. Nonetheless, MTV's Web traffic lags behind other youth-focused sites it competes with, such as Facebook and MySpace, according to comScore.