MTV drops the ball

So, MTV has been losing the plot for years at this point. It's useless to long for the days when the channel played music videos - that was SO 1997. But MTV has always taken pride in its VMA awards show, and up until the last couple of years, it was the sole last entertaining element of the channel.

Basically, though, the VMAs have sucked the last few years. Everything's so scripted, the presenters/guests appear seriously disinterested, and the whole thing ends up feeling thrown together. So this year, they decided to hold the show in Vegas, and give the show a more accessible feel. Many of the performers played from suites in the Palms hotel, and the camera would switch to the performances as the show went to commercial. So you'd end up watching a 10-second clip of Queens of the Stone Age playing their latest single, but it came off as strange - why is MTV marginalizing its performers; the stars of the show? Does the network really think we watch these shows for the award hosts???

While I appreciate MTV's suspicion that the award show needed a shake-up, shortening the live performances is NOT the way to go, and they should have known that. The show was directionless and disjointed; which, by the past few VMAs, is saying something. Back to the drawing board, MTV...