Comments on: Didn’t Like The Video Music Awards? Too Bad, There’s More Where That Came From

By: LostTurntable

LostTurntable — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 02:51:49 +0000

Yet another reason why I hope the Large Hadron Collider sucks up the world in a miniature black hole.

By: Chris Molanphy

Chris Molanphy — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 10:16:19 +0000

I actually thought this year — thanks largely to Brand, when he was rambling and not trying to do traditional standup — was a sizable improvement over last year’s train wreck. It wasn’t a classic a la the ’90s, but it at least resembled a straight awards show rather than an over-blogged/”you make the action!” solipsism-fest.

I even liked some of the live performances — including songs I don’t actually like! I’m thinking of Pink in particular: still can’t stand that joint when it comes on the radio, but her live performance was compelling and relatively no-bullshit and actually made the song sound better. Rihanna was also decent (weirdly, her voice was stronger for the T.I. duet than for “Disturbia,” but maybe that’s because she was less distracted by onstage froufrou), and the interstitial performances (except Katy P., natch) were generally fine.

I mean, on a VMA scale of 1 to 10, it’s still a 4, at best, but after last year’s 1 and the deadly-dull pair of years they were in that friggin’ Miami airplane hangar, I feel like they’re starting to right the ship. Guess I’m alone in this opinion.

By: Maura Johnston

Maura Johnston — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 09:47:20 +0000

@amandacobra: youtube? or mtv.com even

By: amandacobra

amandacobra — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 09:43:27 +0000

Am I so old and out of the loop that your mention of file sharing and P2P networks was meant to indicate that people were intending on skipping the broadcast but were so intent on seeing their fave artist (alright, let's drop the pretense and just say Jonas Brothers) that they were gonna wake up bright and early Monday morning to start downloading the torrent of the show? Presumably, the people in question have cable but would have chosen to NOT watch the show. But would care enough to see it to download it (or the portion of the show they cared about without having to sit through the endless ads and crap).

Sorry I forgot my point.

By: ObtuseIntolerant

ObtuseIntolerant — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 09:12:37 +0000

@The Illiterate: True.

But - as ridiculous as it sounds - a bunch of them claim to be organizing a boycott of all Viacom subsidiaries (including websites) to the best of their abilities, thanks to the lure-the-JB-fans-then-slap-them-in-the-face-and-send-them-home-with-no-award approach.

I doubt they'll be able to pull it off though. Darn.

By: egg cream

egg cream — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 08:43:33 +0000

@loudersoft: Yeah, I have a feeling that the answer to Dan's "Who was [...] staying interested the entire time?" question is "People who thought Britney might come back out for a surprise show-closing performance."

By: revmatty

revmatty — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 08:38:07 +0000

I managed to get through almost ten minutes of it, including the awful opener bit where Brit gets advice from some random dude. The only thing actually interesting about awards shows is when something unexpected happens. Harder to do in the internet era when everyone who sees the rehearsals rushes out to be the first to blog it, but surprise performances by someone OTHER than flavor of the week artists, funny skits (yes, the skits actually being funny would qualify as unexpected, are they still hiring Vilanche to write this crap?), train wrecks (RATM are the winners here, but streakers or people running up to accept an award for someone they claim isn't there tonight as said winner tries to get up to the stage are always welcome as well).

To summarize: Award shows are predictable and boring.

By: The Illiterate

The Illiterate — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 08:24:53 +0000

Two words: Jonas Brothers

By: JohnDoe

JohnDoe — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 07:06:04 +0000

@Al Shipley: They were up big last year as well, after the crash&burn of the previous two years. So two years of Britney = two years of growth? Who knows.

@Rob Murphy: That's a cume number (as in - how many people watched at some point during the show). I bet when MTV does their big press-release, it will be in the 20-million plus.

By: Al Shipley

Al Shipley — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 06:46:07 +0000

Wow, haven’t the VMA ratings been on a downward spiral forever? I’m honestly interested to hear the theories here. Was it all the fans of “The Hills”? Or just the fact that there are now millions of people watching every awards show for the sole purpose of liveblogging it?

By: Rob Murphy

Rob Murphy — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 06:33:46 +0000

I don’t have access to the number translators that would convert that 8.1 rating to a “number of viewers” or “share of the audience”, but I’ll trust HITS’ interpretation.

BTW, the “Camp Rock” premiere back in June drew 8.9 million viewers. And the “High School Musical 2″ premiere last summer drew 17.2 million viewers.

By: loudersoft

loudersoft — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 06:25:00 +0000

The reasons it drew so many people is because everyone was hoping for something that wasn’t there. Next year, the numbers will plummet.