The live ceremony will simulcast on MTV but will be presented by CBS, which has also helmed broadcasts of the Grammy Awards since 1973
The MTV Video Music Awards will retain its namesake, but the annual awards ceremony will no longer be presented on MTV. After 40 years on the network, the VMAs have found a new broadcast home at CBS. On Sept. 7, CBS will present the show for the first time live from UBS Arena in New York. The show will still be telecast on MTV as it airs and streaming on Paramount+.
CBS acquiring the VMAs comes as the network approaches the end of its partnership with the Grammy Awards. In October, Disney landed a ten-year deal with the Recording Academy to air the show on ABC, Hulu, and Disney+ beginning in 2027 and extending through 2036. CBS has been home to the Grammys since 1973. When the deal kicks off, ABC will helm the Grammys, the Oscars, and the Super Bowl in the same year.
The VMAs, which have seen their social capital diminish over the past few years, delivered a promising ceremony in 2024. The show, which brought in its biggest multi-network audience since 2020, featured the kind of memorable performances it was once known for hosting. Chappell Roan performed “Good Luck, Babe!” in front of a wall of flames during her medieval set, while Sabrina Carpenter locked lips with an alien.
The 2025 VMAs will see the return of executive producers Bruce Gillmer, who joined in 2017, and Jesse Ignjatovic, who started producing the show with Den of Thieves in 2007 before taking it on with a mix of co-producers in the years since.
“With the primary drivers in the award show landscape, and I’ll definitely put the VMAs in that category with the Grammys, the BET Awards, the AMAs, you do see an uptick,” Gillmer told Hits Daily Double last year about the current standing of awards shows. “But there may be one or two too many award shows. The core award shows are doing well, and they’re growing, but there’s not room for everybody.”
