By Kipp Jones September 18, 2021 at 11:58am
The MTV Video Music Awards managed to bring in record low numbers in viewership on Sunday as the previously relevant awards show embraced peak “wokeness” and awarded its top honor to a gay rapper who made news this year for releasing a satanic video.
Apparently, nobody working at MTV wanted to learn any lessons from the Oscars, the Emmys or the Grammys.
All of those annual programs are stuck in the Hollywood echo chamber, and paid dearly in ratings and through revenue in 2021. MTV, a channel that once was known for showing exceptional music videos in a good rotation, met the same fate this year. It’s all quite embarrassing for a cable channel that stands for Music Television, but airs no music.
Starlet Megan Fox and her near-nude stunt couldn’t help.
Megan Fox Credits Machine Gun Kelly for ‘Naked’ Dress Idea: ‘Whatever You Say, Daddy!’ https://t.co/CO3vXquqOX
— PeopleStyle (@peoplestyle) September 15, 2021
Madonna, half-naked at age 63, couldn’t help.
SURPRISE! The #VMAs begin with an introduction from the one and only @Madonna pic.twitter.com/YmWtjabVJ7
— MTV NEWS (@MTVNEWS) September 13, 2021
Nothing could attract people to the 2021 VMAs as the show floundered to a historic low. How bad was it? The worst ever.
Did you watch the 2021 MTV VMA awards?
Sunday’s VMAs attracted roughly 900,000 viewers. That was down 31 percent from last year’s humiliating 1.3 million viewers, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
It’s difficult to imagine that MTV once hosted music icons such as Tom Petty, Dire Straits and even — dare we mention — Devo. People, decades after great music and music videos aired, weren’t interested in tuning in to see a freak show.
That’s exactly what Sunday was, as a satanist who has previously marketed himself to children took the year’s top honor. Rapper Lil Nas X, who courted major fame in 2019 with his rap/country hit “Old Town Road,” won Video of the Year for his song and video “Montero (Call Me by Your Name).”
.@LilNasX on his #VMAs Video of the Year win for #Montero: “I will not take this for granted” https://t.co/mC3TUnT8hA
— MTV NEWS (@MTVNEWS) September 13, 2021
In that video, the 22-year-old descends into hell to give the devil a lap dance. How did he accept the award?
“I want to say thank you to the gay agenda. Let’s go gay agenda!” the rapper said when accepting the honor for best video.
.@LilNasX accepts the award for Video of the Year: “Let’s go gay agenda!” 🏳️🌈 pic.twitter.com/5QNJxd0M42
— MTV NEWS (@MTVNEWS) September 13, 2021
Unfortunately for he and ViacomCBS, few people in this vast country were watching. Sorry Lil Nas X, but AIDS and transgenderism are a real bummer.
Lil Nas X leveraged his platform at the MTV #VMAs to impart a powerful message about HIV/AIDS in the United States. https://t.co/JEpFFk4r5D
— Logo 🏳️🌈 (@LogoTV) September 13, 2021
Thankfully for children, people with good taste in music and others who don’t enjoy being force-fed “woke” nonsense,” the VMAs are no longer relevant. Perhaps MTV should consider hanging it up. That, or the people at the company ought to consider a remodel where MTV once again makes an attempt to appeal to people who just want to listen to good music.
Where is Peter Gabriel when we need him? We need someone to take a sledgehammer to our broken culture.
Johnathan “Kipp” Jones has worked as a reporter, an editor and a producer in radio, television and digital media. He is a proud husband and father.
Johnathan “Kipp” Jones has worked as an editor and producer in radio and television. He is a proud husband and father.