The Bests, Worsts, Mosts, and Leasts of the 2024 VMAs

Why is this show so LONG?

We said this last year. And we will probably also say it next year. And we are definitely saying it now: It is WILD that the VMAs are on tape-delay for the West Coast. We realize this is a niche problem, but the industry this show celebrates is mostly based in Los Angeles, and so is a decent chunk of the media that writes about it. Maybe the metrics back up this choice, but SURELY most people on the left side of the country -- even some who have to watch for work -- took one look at the listings and rolled their eyes and said, “Forget it,” and instead consumed the highlights on social media without commercials. It’s nutty to subtract even a faint chance they’d consume it live, doubly nutty to do that on a school night, and TRIPLY so at a time when MTV is already swimming upstream in its fight for relevance and should be desperate to get both the young eyeballs AND the nostalgic old folks excited.

Is MTV so insecure about attendance that it felt the need to piggyback on people already b…