Less than a week before the 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards was set to air live on Sunday, May 7, a mass exodus of talent that included host Drew Barrymore and many of the celebrity guests and performers who were slated to appear prompted a big change to the show’s format. On Friday, MTV announced that the show would pivot away from its live format to a pre-taped clip show that would air across MTV, Paramount and Paramount Plus networks. .
“As we carefully navigate how best to deliver the fan first awards show we envision that our team has worked so hard to create, we’re pivoting away from a live event that still enables up to produce a memorable night full of exclusive sneak peeks, irreverent categories our audience has come to expect and countless moments that will surprise and delight as we honor the best of film and TV over the past year,” said MTV Movie & TV Awards executive producer Bruce Gillmer, President of Music, Music Talent, Programming and Events at Paramount Global, in a statement.
This year’s MTV Movie & TV Awards nominees and presenters represent the biggest movies and TV shows — scripted and unscripted — from across the Hollywood landscape. In a show of solidarity with striking writers, many of them opted to bow out of their participation in the event.
On Friday, the Writer’s Guild of America sent out an advisory that they would be picketing the event, to be held Sunday at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. After losing its host and many of the nominees and presenters, it makes sense for the show to move to another format at this time.
It’s unclear at this point how winners will accept their awards, though it’s very likely that MTV is scrambling to notify and film acceptance speeches ahead of Sunday’s event. The awards show has always been popular with fans for its outside-the-box award categories like Best Kiss and Best Fight Scene.
Though it won’t air live, the taped version of the 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards will still air as planned at its original day and time: Sunday, May 7, at 5 pm ET/PT. The event will air on MTV and across other Paramount brands including BET, BET Her, Comedy Central, CMT, Logo, MTV2, Nickelodeon, Paramount Network, Pop, TV Land, VH1 and internationally on MTV.
