The 30th annual MTV Movie & TV awards will return to form this May.
Unlike the past couple of years, where the show was divided into “scripted” and “unscripted” portions, this ceremony will bring the TV genres back together in one collective primetime event, as reported Tuesday by Variety.
The MTV Movie & TV Awards will take place this year on May 7 at the Barker Hangar in Los Angeles’ Santa Monica Airport – the same 35,000-square-foot entertainment venue where the show was filmed live in 2022. The host or hosts and nominees for 2023 have yet to be announced.
The move signals the next step in the evolution of the awards program, which originally debuted in 1992 billed as the MTV Movie Awards. It was later expanded to include TV categories in 2017.
After a year off in 2020 due to the pandemic, it returned in 2021 with two separate nights – one for scripted and one for unscripted television content.
In 2022, they combined them into a one-night event, but still separated the ceremonies by having two distinct hosts. Vanessa Hudgens hosted the scripted portion while “The Bachelorette” star Tayshia Adams hosted the unscripted program.
Now, it seems there will be one host or at least a more seamless integration of the program. This shift may be in response to the fluctuation in viewership the show has experienced in recent years.
The combined show in 2022 drew 2.5 million viewers, The Wrap reported, which was up 47% from the prior year, but still significantly below the 3.37 million viewers it garnered in 2018 according to The Hollywood Reporter.
It’s not just MTV, however. CBC reported last month that “awards shows have been in plight for years,” and suggests low ratings for the Golden Globes and the Grammys recently have raised questions about the “relevance of award shows” in general.
2022 saw the likes of “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “Euphoria,” “Loki,” “Scream” and “Selling Sunset” take home big awards. Industry luminaries such as Jack Black, Jennifer Lopez and Bethenny Frankel (of “Real Housewives” fame) also received lifetime achievement awards.
The 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards will air internationally and across 170 countries on MTV.
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