MTV’s VMAs Broadcast Rescheduled to Avoid Conflict With Presidential Debates

Amy Harris/Invision/AP; AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson

MTV announced on Monday that its signature awards ceremony, the Video Music Awards, was going to be rescheduled. The change means that the youth-driven broadcast will avoid a conflict with the first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

Variety reported that the broadcast was originally scheduled for September 10 and will now run on September 11. However, the network stopped short of providing a reason for the one-day delay:

MTV did not outrightly cite the competing debate in its announcement about the show being bumped, but the network made it unofficially clear that it has a history of encouraging civic engagement and did not want to stand in the way of viewers becoming educated about what’s at stake in a presidential election. Ratings, of course, also could have taken a hit, given the sudden surge of interest in the Harris campaign among younger demos. (A CNBC poll released Friday shows that Harris currently enjoys a 12-point lead over Trump among voters in the 18-to-34 age group.)

MTV did recognize that the new date still held a great deal of weight, and included in their announcement that the network “will again support the nonprofit 9/11 Day, which organizes the September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance, and Tuesday’s Children, which serves the families of 9/11.”

The 2024 VMAs performer lineup includes a host of hot names including Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, GloRilla, Camila Cabello, and Rauw Alejandro.

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