Editor's note: Hi, I am pixie, and I am really feeling like I need a helmet, as this links to last year's data. As such, feel free to point and laugh at me, and possibly even send me a designer helmet. That said, had Shoutmouth existed last year, I'd have written this article, so um, please consider it "Shoutmouth Classic" and well, continue to mock me. For I am shamed.
The show pulled in fewer than 6 million viewers, according to preliminary Nielsen data, which has to sting a bit at the network. On the bright side, Britney Spears is relieved to know the 28% decline in viewers from last year's means far fewer people saw her... performance -- if that's what you want to call it -- on a large screen.
Last year, the show pulled in around 8 million viewers, and the year before that, 10 million. At this rate, approximately ten people will be watching the awards show by 2010.
However, the network does have something to fall back on. Despite the massive decline in television viewers, MTV online served up approximately 3.9 million streams yesterday -- one of the biggest days in the site's history. This is an approximately 200% increase over last year's online viewership, showing that people are increasingly choosing the Internet over television.
This is obvious, though. The Internet streams gave me everything I wanted this morning. I popped over, watched the Fall Out Boy stuff, and watched the Britney performance because I heard it was horrid. Skipped all the rap, and everything else I didn't care about. Plenty of people probably did the same, picking and choosing what interested them, rather than being tied to a two-hour telecast full of ads and artists they weren't interested in.
People like control over what they're watching... and this is pretty solid proof. MTV is now in an interesting position -- and things could really go either way for them. Struggling to be the cool channel in a hundreds of cable channels is hard enough. Can they ever become that channel again? Hard to say. But maybe they'll see the lesson in the "on demand" aspect of their online site and end up reinventing the wheel, become the super-cool renegades they used to be. I realize this is unlikely, but anything is possible.
And maybe they'll jettison the whole Video Music Awards thing altogether. When even Justin Timberlake is repeatedly telling the channel to "play more videos," it does seem rather silly and old-fashioned for a network that rarely shows videos to offer awards for them. Back when MTV showed videos, it made sense -- but today? It comes off like a throwback to the past, a silly ceremony they do out of obligation. Sort of like the non-practicing Catholic who goes to church on Christmas because they think they're supposed to.
I think people felt that; how the show was lacking in authenticity -- something real music fans care about, believe it or not -- and responded in kind. If MTV could find a way to bond with their audience again, and give them a reason to care, I think they could still pull it out and return to their former glory. Let's see if they learn anything from these low ratings, and what they choose to do from here.
And by "in the toilet," I meant, "in the golden toilet," also known as "awesome" because as it turns out, ratings were up 23% from last year. Go, MTV. You kick ass.
