MTV turned a golden popcorn into a popular piece of an award show, 25 years ago. Now the network is ready to change the award show with big changes that include TV shows and gender neutral categories.
The network’s plans to rebrand the awards comes as an urge to meet the new generations demands and break new ground. After all, we’re talking about a network that was once famous for breaking new ground in television.
This is the revamp
MTV announced a big change to come for its traditional MTV Movie Awards on March 13. After 25 years of the famous Golden Popcorn MTV decided to celebrate TV as well for the first time.The network announced that as of 2017 they will expand the ceremony including TV to become MTV Movie Awards & TV Awards.
For years the network has been a reflection of the youth’s tastes and inclinations when it comes to music, movies, and culture in general.MTV president Chris McCarthy said about this, “We’re living in a golden age of content, and great storytelling and characters resonate regardless of whether you’re watching it in a theater or on TV. The new ‘MTV Movie & TV Awards’ will celebrate even more of the brightest, bravest, funniest and most shared films and TV shows resonating across youth culture.”
Also, for a couple of years now MTV has been broadcasting original series such as Awkward, Faking It and so on, so it seems only natural to add TV shows to the awards ceremony becoming in a kinda not-academic-but-youthfull Emmys/Oscars awards.
Regardless of the lack of academy treatment, the MTV Movie Awards winners of Best Movie have lined up with the winners of the same Oscars category in three times, “Titanic,” “Gladiator” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.”
Also, the show is going back to its roots and is being broadcast live again. Breaking from the recent ceremonies, this year it will be live and hosted by Adam DeVine at the Shrine Auditorium on May 7.The day leading to the ceremony MTV will host it first ever Movie and Television Festival, featuring food, special guests and musical performances outside the Shrine.
What we’ll be up to
So, adding TV to the awards is just the first step to the awards’ rebrand. MTV also revealed that the awards will have new categories. This move comes as MTV president hopes to set the network for years to comeOf the 16 categories, 5 will be brand new for the long-time viewers, Best Tearjerker, Best Host, Best Reality Competition, Best American Story and Best Fight Against the System.
The iconic Best Fight category was first presented in 1996 and now makes a significant shift as Best Fight Against the System.According to McCarthy, the term Fight has taken a new meaning nowadays and “We have to constantly be pushing ourselves to not only respond to culture but lead it.”
So the network is making the best to relfect this new era. According to McCarthy the characeers and stories opn this category fight on principle, showing the best fightin today.
He concluded saying, “Today, we see what’s happening — whether it’s Black Lives Matter, the Women’s March,” he said. “Young audience members are reviving an activism voice that we haven’t seen in years, and we want to celebrate that and encourage it.”
Non-gendered categories
MTV’s biggest change is without a doubt the switch to non gendered prizes, gathering actors and actresses in the same category.
The move follows Billion’s Asia Kate Dillon submitting for consideration in the Emmys actor category. This could be a bigger move for awards, recently the Grammys dropped the male/female category facing musicians in the same category.
A MTV rep said, “A great performance is great regardless of gender and we think that dropping the male/female division has made the drama performance category more exciting.”
McCarthey said that the non-gendered category is a good way to acknoledge the shift in the audience’s consciesuness, “They don’t see those lines in the way that generations in the past have,” McCarthy said. “So we wanted to take those down. They felt really antiquated.”
Seems like MTV after years of not breaking new ground it’s finding its way to do it.
Source: Independent