LAWRENCE, Kan. — Despite correcting some errant judgment from the last couple of years, MTV’s recently-announced lineup for its upcoming Video Music Awards still leaves much to be desired. While the cable network has returned the VMAs to Thursday night instead of Sunday and back to it’s home in New York City, both of which are for the first time in two years, scheduling may have kept MTV from getting the director it deserves. With this year’s VMAs occurring within days of the Emmy Awards, the show’s last three directors – Beth McCarthy Miller, Louis J. Horvitz and Bruce Gowers – are all unavailable because of their nominations for Outstanding Directing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program. Horvitz is also directing the Emmy Awards telecast. MTV, therefore, had to hire UK director Hamish Hamilton for its longest-running award show. Hamilton, who has directed the MTV Europe Music Awards as well as countless music DVDs, has no doubt made a name for himself internationally, but his ability to cut a show on the fly is still debatable. His style of employing erratic camerawork and cutting often results in a jarring visual chaos that is, at the very least, unsettling. He was the director behind the Live 8 performances in London, of which I was very critical, and has directed the last few U2 concert DVDs. If his style remains unchanged, this year’s VMAs could be dizzying, but I will gladly eat my words if he proves me wrong.

Filed under:
Music/Variety, Opinion/Editorial by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. — For the fifth time in her career, Beth McCarthy Miller has been nominated by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for Outstanding Directing for Variety, Music or Comedy programming. McCarthy Miller, nominated for last season’s episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Steve Martin, has never won an Emmy despite past nominations for America: A Tribute to Heroes, Saturday Night Live: The 25th Anniversary and Saturday Night Live. This year, her category consists of fellow veterans Louis J. Horvitz (78th Annual Academy Awards) and Bruce Gowers (American Idol) as well as Chuck O’Neil (The Daily Show With Jon Stewart) and newcomer Jim Hoskinson (The Colbert Report). Unlike in prevous attempts, however, McCarthy Miller is the lone representative of non-cable late-night programming. Her nomination is one of only two for the 31-year-old show; the other went to SNL’s technical crew for the episode hosted by Jack Black.

Filed under:
Music/Variety by Scott A. Winer

ROSWELL, Ga. — After a series of poor live programming decisions by MTV, such as the Live 8 debacle, the 2004 MTV Movie Awards and Video Music Awards, and the Super Bowl XXXVIII Halftime Show, the cable network seems to be headed back on the right track for the upcoming Video Music Awards.

For the second straight year the show will be on a Sunday at the American Airlines Arena after having been held on Thursdays for the past several years in either New York or Los Angeles at various locations, including Radio City Music Hall, New York’s Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center and the Universal Amphitheatre.

Filed under:
Music/Variety, Opinion/Editorial, Television by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. — This morning, as I was driving from Kansas City to Lawrence in my car “Black Beauty,” who will travel her 222,000th mile this week, listening to D.H.T.’s remake of the Roxette song “Listen To Your Heart” on the radio, I began to get nostalgic. Reflecting on the good old days before “pop” and MTV came in and practically decimated music and my beloved medium of television.

I wonder if most teens even realize that the MTV is an abbreviation for Music Television. What music?! It has instead become a brand that seeks to capitalize off of all that is “pop,” more recently accepting the responsibility of defining “pop” – music and culture – in the first place. With the notable exceptions of Beth McCarthy Miller, Carson Daly and Jon Stewart, MTV has produced mediocrity in massive quantities, people with no hope for survival in broadcast television. The network has become far too big, no longer emphasizing music as it was intended to when it launched in the early 1980′s.

Filed under:
Music/Variety, Opinion/Editorial, Television by Scott A. Winer