MTV Movie & TV Awards Won’t Happen in 2024; Eyes Return In a New Format Next Year
The MTV Movie & TV Awards is taking another break. Variety has confirmed that the event, which would have normally taken place around this time of year, will instead sit 2024 out — with an eye toward returning next year, perhaps in a different, “reimagined” format.
It’s been a bumpy decade for the MTV Movie & TV Awards, which first began in 1992 (as the MTV Movie Awards). Last’s year’s event was forced to pivot to a pre-taped clip show in light of the Hollywood writers’ strike, as host Drew Barrymore bowed out and the WGA announced plans to picket the ceremony.
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Meanwhile, in 2020, the MTV Movie & TV Awards also didn’t take place, due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, but also because the network had planned to move the franchise (long a spring/early summer staple) to December. Ultimately, instead of an awards show, MTV ran a “MTV Movie & TV Awards: Greatest of All Time” special, hosted by Vanessa Hudgens.
The awards franchise was able to pull off events in 2021 and 2022. The show returned with two ceremonies in 2021: the MTV Movie & TV Awards on one night (hosted by Leslie Jones) and the MTV Movie & TV Awards: Unscripted (hosted by Nikki Glaser) on the next. In 2022, the ceremony was also split into a scripted event (hosted by Hudgens) and one for the unscripted (hosted by Tayshia Adams). The plan was to once again hold just one MTV Movie & TV Awards in 2023, until the move to pre-tape.
For most of its existence, the telecast was known as the MTV Movie Awards, taking advantage of the spring kickoff of the summer box office season. In 2017, the name was changed to the “MTV Movie & TV Awards” and included television series for the first time. Also that year, the network went gender-neutral, embracing a decision to merge male and female performers into singular categories. Later, movie and TV contenders were merged in many of the categories as well.
In 2018, MTV moved the show to June, in order to capitalize on Emmy For Your Consideration campaign season on the TV side; in more recent years, the telecast shifted back to May.
There’s no official word on why the MTV Movie & TV Awards is taking this year off, but obviously the news comes as the fate of parent Paramount Global is currently in limbo.
Last year’s winners on the abbreviated special included “Scream VI” for best movie; “The Last of Us” as best show; Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick” for best performance in a movie; Jenna Ortega in ”Wednesday” for best performance in a show; Adam Sandler in “Murder Mystery 2” for best comedic performance; Pedro Pascal in “The Last of Us” for best hero; Elizabeth Olsen in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” for best villain; Madison Bailey & Rudy Pankow in “Outer Banks” for best kiss; Jennifer Coolidge (who also received a “comedic genius award”) in “The White Lotus” for most frightened performance; Gale Weathers vs. Ghostface in “Scream VI” for best fight; Joseph Quinn in “Stranger Things” for best breakthrough performance; Pedro Pascal & Bella Ramsey in “The Last Of Us” for best duo; and “Stranger Things” for best kick-ass cast.
On the unscripted side, winners included “Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me” for best music documentary; “The Kardashians” for best docu-reality show; “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” for best competition series; Ariana Madix, Katie Maloney, Scheana Shay and LaLa Kent of “Vanderpump Rules” for best reality on-screen team; and Drew Barrymore of “The Drew Barrymore Show” for best host.
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