MTV VMAs 2016 Moments: The Best, the Worst and the Whatever
So...the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards, huh? It was certainly miles away from the Miley messiness of '15, which one can only assume was chief among the show producers' goals. It was a long night of missed beats, a (small) handful of dazzling performances from the likes of Beyonce and Rihanna, and some fun moments amid the general WTF-ery.
From the jump, the promotional rollout for the 2016 VMAs was full of puzzling choices, including an oddly-paced reveal of the performers list that kept Bey's appearance a "secret" until after it had been leaked everywhere. This seeming lack of a plan carried over to the night's emcee duties, which were shared by Key and Peele, Jay Pharoah, DJ Khaled and Nicole Byer in lieu of a single host.
What was going on? And how does an awards show manage to leach every drop of funny from the spirits of otherwise talented comedians? This remains unclear, but we can tell you that people didn't care for all the runtime-devouring "comedy bits." This year's show gave the impression that Viacom and MTV either decided to surrender the whole thing to really inexperienced people, or they gave it to someone who thought they were playing safe in an edgy-looking way.
There were some standout moments of polished excellence over the course of the evening. But there were far more rough-around-the-edges ones, which Team VMA relies on to keep everybody talking/tweeting. Was it enough? Check out our roundup of the 2016 VMAs' best, worst and (most frequently) "whatever" moments above, and tell us what you thought of the show.
The 2016 VMAs Red Carpet