# The VMAs (Video Music Awards) are being aired on CBS this year, not MTV **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** talk-variety-show\ **Created:** [September 4, 2025, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vmas-video-music-awards-are-being-aired-on-cbs-this-year-not-mtv/1022733 "2025-09-04T03:23:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vmas-video-music-awards-are-being-aired-on-cbs-this-year-not-mtv/1022733/1 "2025-09-04T03:23:06Z")
However, MTV has not, to my knowledge, shown videos for many years; their sister channels do. But CBS? Is it due to the merger I keep hearing people talk about? Yeah, I know, first world question du jour. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vmas-video-music-awards-are-being-aired-on-cbs-this-year-not-mtv/1022733/2 "2025-09-04T05:29:48Z")
The VMAs will be simulcast on CBS and MTV. Both are owned by Paramount. They’re just trying to add people who don’t have cable TV to the audience. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vmas-video-music-awards-are-being-aired-on-cbs-this-year-not-mtv/1022733/3 "2025-09-04T05:34:18Z")
Okay. That makes sense. I didn’t even know they still HAD VMAs. I remember watching them back in the day, just to see what kinds of hijinks would take place. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vmas-video-music-awards-are-being-aired-on-cbs-this-year-not-mtv/1022733/4 "2025-09-04T11:06:17Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I didn’t even know they still HAD VMAs. I didn’t know they still had videos. Or music. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vmas-video-music-awards-are-being-aired-on-cbs-this-year-not-mtv/1022733/5 "2025-09-04T11:42:07Z")
What’s “cable”? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2025, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vmas-video-music-awards-are-being-aired-on-cbs-this-year-not-mtv/1022733/6 "2025-09-04T13:08:32Z")
Videos are definitely still a thing though they’ve mainly migrated to YouTube (and snippets on TikTok). Feels like it _should_ be the YouTube Video Music Awards these days. One of the articles mentioned that MTV still shows videos on other channels so I guess there’s still an MTV2 out there but we haven’t had cable in years. Based on previous music threads, it should go without saying that the VMAs aren’t trying to capture the Doper demographic. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2025, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vmas-video-music-awards-are-being-aired-on-cbs-this-year-not-mtv/1022733/7 "2025-09-05T03:33:30Z")
From what I’ve seen of MTV2 and the like, they mostly play “oldies”. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vmas-video-music-awards-are-being-aired-on-cbs-this-year-not-mtv/1022733/8 "2025-09-08T02:18:07Z")
Am I the only person here watching it? ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vmas-video-music-awards-are-being-aired-on-cbs-this-year-not-mtv/1022733/9 "2025-09-08T02:20:41Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Am I the only person here watching it ? Probably. Music videos? So 1980s. > [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > The VMAs will be simulcast on CBS and MTV. Both are owned by Paramount. They’re just trying to add people who don’t have cable TV to the audience. People who don’t have cable don’t give a hoot about the VMAs. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vmas-video-music-awards-are-being-aired-on-cbs-this-year-not-mtv/1022733/10 "2025-09-08T05:10:44Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > People who don’t have cable don’t give a hoot about the VMAs. When they had the first VMAs, when I routinely said “I want my MTV”, even then I didn’t care about the VMAs. I just wanted to see videos. Good videos, if possible, I still would. I see my cable service has an alternate MTV channel that shows old videos, but it’s an upgrade channel. Just like back in the day, “MTV: Some people just don’t get it.” ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vmas-video-music-awards-are-being-aired-on-cbs-this-year-not-mtv/1022733/11 "2025-09-08T05:16:55Z")
I’m actually a bit surprised at how many music videos are being made these days. Besides all the big famous names, there’s a bajillion pretty professional looking videos by start-up acts with 75 followers and 250 views after a year. I suppose it’s a combination of (a) easier to make a quality video with an iPhone and editing tools than back in the day and (b) YouTube is a big player in how people find/listen to music and you kind of need a video to get on the scene. And an actual “acted” video probably gets a lot more engagement than a static image or visualizer video. I was going down a rabbit hole this weekend of listening to new music and probably went through twenty to thirty videos from the last few months and that’s just based on what the algorithm thought I’d want to see.