2017 MTV Movie & TV Awards: Moments You Didn't See On TV
The 2017 MTV Movie and TV Awards were filled with the usual load of popcorn prizes, silly host zingers, and pop culture moments aplenty, but there was still a lot going on with the show that didn't make it to the screen. Here's what you might've missed before and during the show.
Changing the name, purpose, and format
It's a good thing Workaholics star Adam DeVine is good with live performances because not only was the 2017 MTV Movie and TV Awards presented before a live audience, but it was simultaneously broadcast at the same time as well. That was a break from tradition for the show, of course, but it wasn't the only major change that would be introduced to the show's format. The show was also, for the first time, inclusive of television shows and actors, bucking nearly a quarter century of MTV Movie Awards tradition.
MTV President Chris McCarthy told Deadline that the change was inspired, in part, by the fact that modern television and streamed shows are just too good to continue overlooking. "We're living in a golden age of content, and great storytelling and characters resonate regardless of whether you're watching it in a theater or on TV," he said. "The new MTV Movie & TV Awards will celebrate even more of the brightest, bravest, funniest and most shared films and TV shows resonating across youth culture."
Hail shut down the red carpet
The MTV Movie and TV Awards red carpet got shut down a little earlier than expected once it started hailing on the red carpet and forced guests of the show to take temporary refuge in the Shrine Auditorium garage to wait out the storm. According to The Los Angeles Times, it was originally just drizzle, but once the hail set in, the red carpet had to be shut down for 10 minutes and never reopened before the show's telecast went live. However, some stars did get a chance to circle back to the public entry line to splash around and give salutations to fans in waiting, who'd braved the bad weather and shared their snaps of the unexpected weather event on social media.
Going gender neutral (but not first)
When Emma Watson won her prize for Best Actor in a Movie for her work in Beauty and the Beast, presenter Kate Dillon introduced the prize as "the first acting award ever that celebrates performance free of any gender distinctions." Watson also touted the category's decision to recognize that "acting is about the ability to put yourself into someone else's shoes and that doesn't need to be separated into two different categories."
MTV's general manager Amy Doyle had told The Hollywood Reporter upon announcement of the nominations that the decision to neutralize the gender of the acting prizes was based upon the fact that "great acting is great acting, no matter what the gender or non-gender." And that's all well and good, but the on-stage claim that this was the first-ever acting category to ditch the actor-actress paradigm was immediately rebuked as false. The Television Critics Association Awards, while not earning as much placement in the zeitgeist, had been giving out gender-neutral "individual achievement" acting prizes for 20 years before the MTV Movie and TV Awards did so.
Millie Bobby Brown is officially Hollywood's BFF
There's no doubt that Stranger Things starlet Millie Bobby Brown has had an exceptional year thanks to the overnight popularity her hit portrayal of Eleven on the series has earned her. And tonight, the results of that sudden sensation status could've have been clearer. She was regularly featured in behind-the-scenes snaps posing with fan favorites, like her celebrity looper Emma Watson and heartthrob Zac Efron, and even revealed that she's formed a tight new friendship with fellow model-actress Cara Delevingne.
These quick prizes left fans irate
Near the end of the show, there were two awards that were handed out in quick succession to speed up the show, but that didn't go over well with the winners' fans. RuPaul's Drag Race won the prize for Best Reality Competition, while Get Out's Lil Rel Howery looked pretty miffed that his Best Comedic Performance prize was doled out in the same 60 seconds as the former (and DeVine proceeded to make the win about him by slugging a beer to lament being beaten).
Online, fans of both were furious about the oversight, especially once Snatched actresses Goldie Hawn and Amy Schumer proceeded to expend several minutes on a joke about adoption that completely failed to land before handing out the Movie of the Year prize to Beauty and the Beast.
Comments about the time snubs for both stemmed from fans feeling slighted ("MTV, really, that's how you did RuPaul?" one fan tweeted) to outright outraged ("So instead of actually presenting RuPaul and [Lil Rel Howery] their awards they just get them tossed on the side," wrote another). Considering the obvious effort for this year's MTV Movie and TV Awards to be more thoughtful and inclusive, the fact that these recipients in particular got the short end of the stick was especially unfortunate, since their speeches would likely have been powerful and interesting to fans.