Oh, Bey-by! Record Ratings for the No-Host 2011 MTV Video Music Awards - Hillary Atkin

MTV39s Video Music Awards are known for generating zeitgeist pop culture moments like Kanye West39s infamous onstage interruption of Taylor Swift39s acceptance speech in 2009 and this year39s edition was no exceptionThe buzziest moment which generated a record number of tweets measured by Twitter at 8868 per second was pop singer Beyoncamp23339s big pregnancy reveal unbuttoning her purple sequined jacket and rubbing her tummy at the end of her performanceDespite coping with Hurricane Irene on the East Coast ratings were recordbreaking with 124 million viewers making it MTV39s most watched telecast ever according to the Nielsen Co up 9 over last year39s showBut what this show really lacked was a host to stitch together some of its big and unexpected moments like Chris Brown39s Cirque du Soleilesque performance Britney Spears almost kissing indrag Lady Gaga or Katy Perry39s peculiar cheesehead ornamentThe show started off with a bizarre monologue by Gaga as her male alter ego a chain smoking Jo Calderone with slicked back Jersey pompadour hair It was hard to tell which direction that was going making for a rocky opening But props to Lady G for remaining in character all night without resorting to the insanely overthetop getups she usually sports Meat dress anyone Not this time although Perry took up the slack by doing four costume changesLittleknown actorcomedian Kevin Hart followed CalderoneGaga at the top and during the not very funny monologue continually made references to the fact that he wasn39t hosting but if he did he would say whatever he was saying differently That went over like a lead balloonIt soon became apparent that there would be no host after all a departure from years past when personalities including Chris Rock who was absolutely hysterical multiple times to Jimmy Fallon Dennis Miller Ben Stiller Jamie Foxx Shawn and Marlon Wayans and last year Chelsea Handler who handled the MC dutiesBut having a hostless show was not unprecedented The VMAs which date back to 1984 with inaugural hosts Bette Midler and Dan Aykroyd also went rudderless in 2007 and 2004With this year39s material including tributes to the recently departed Amy Winehouse and honoring Britney Spears with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award the guiding hand of a host would39ve been appreciated Not to mention laughs that might have ensued at appropriate momentsRussell Brand who received widespread exposure in the United States when he hosted the VMA39s in 2008 as a littleknown comic and actor and was brought back in 2009 to further acclaim was obviously availableAs the highprofile husband of multiple nominee Perry and called upon to begin the Winehouse tribute with his reminiscences of her in London about which he39d written Brand seem to rush through the rather poignant material perhaps miffed that he didn39t get the hosting gigamp8212or given a cue that the show was running longStill it lurched along and provided other hotbutton moments Chris Brown39s aerial moves along with other performers during a medley of songs that unexpectedly included Nirvana39s quotSmells Like Teen Spiritquot West and JayZ taking the stage to perform Adele39s emotional rendition of a song that wasn39t the lauded quotRolling in the Deepquot Young the Giant39s debut VMA appearance with a mosh pit crowd of fans from their California hometown Best new artist recipient Tyler the Creator giving an expletivefilled acceptance speech geared toward kids Gaga39s performance of quotYou and Iquot for which she was joined by Queen guitarist Brian MayIn the end it was the announcement of Bey39s beyby that will be remembered Yes that unborn offspring of musical royalty was to coin a Gaga phrase born this wayamp8212in the whitehot glare of global media exposureHillary Atkin is an awardwinning journalist who began her career as a television news writer reporter and producer at KOBTV As a broadcast producer at KCBS in Los Angeles she won numerous Emmy Associated Press and Golden Mike Awards for live coverage and entertainment special events programming and then produced and directed biographies on Robert Duvall Elizabeth Montgomery Linda Darnell and Nicolas Cage for AampampE and E She can be reached at hillaryatkinyahoocom Check us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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Oh, Bey-by! Record Ratings for the No-Host 2011 MTV Video Music Awards - Hillary Atkin

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