MTV postpones Movie & TV Awards as it struggles with what to do about big live events
With everyone spending the last few months focused on the coronavirus pandemic and little else, it makes sense for certain less-important things to fall by the wayside. Apparently, though, one of the less-important things was MTV’s Movie & TV Awards, which has been postponed indefinitely while the network tries to figure out how to do more important things—like, say, the Video Music Awards. The Movie & TV Awards were presumably going to be held this summer, as they traditionally are, but MTV never actually set a firm date for them. Now we know they’re definitely not happening this summer, but Variety says that it actually isn’t entirely because of the pandemic.
Apparently, MTV had been thinking about moving the Movie & TV Awards (which we think should be called the MTV MTVs) to December even before the virus, but working on that had to be put off while the network “focused on other pressing issues.” Now the event might end up happening in December, or it might not happen at all until next December. Or maybe it won’t happen this year and it will still happen next summer. Or maybe it’ll never happen again. It’s hard to say, as are most things that involving looking to the future while this virus continues to spread.
Going back to the Video Music Awards for a moment, though, we may know when those are happening: Variety says that MTV is currently working with “government officials, the medical community, and key stakeholders” (the big three!) to determine whether or not it would be possible to hold the VMAs at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on August 30th—as in a live show with people on a stage. That’s the idea, at least, but Variety says MTV is also open to “virtual performances and an audience-free show.” However, the latter would be particularly odd for the VMAs, even if it is the smartest choice. Kanye West storming the stage and interrupting someone’s speech just wouldn’t have the same energy if he were doing it to an empty arena.
UPDATE: Viacom has now released a statement saying it still intends to hold MTV’s Movie & TV Awards later this year and that plans were already being made before the pandemic to move the event out of June and into December (as Variety noted up above). A specific date hasn’t been announced yet, but the company seems confident that it’s still going to happen in 2020 at some point.