MTV: IT WAS 20 YEARS AGO TODAY
The pioneering music video channel will celebrate two decades on the air with a party broadcast live from the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan.
The event will be hosted by Carson Daly and other MTV on-air talent (Kurt Loder will celebrate his third 20-year birthday). It will air on MTV, with a simulcast on MTV2 for the first time ever, from 8-11p.m. ET/PT on Wednesday, August 1.
"This party is as much about celebrating the future of MTV as it is about our history," said MTV Group President and Chairman Interactive Music Judy McGrath. "For 20 years, we have focused on constant evolution and re-invention and we're not about to slow down in the next 20." Can you say, Jesse Camp?
The evening will include several live musical performances, artist interviews and appearances from the original VJs: Martha Quinn, JJ Jackson, Alan Hunter, Nina Blackwood and Mark Goodman, the return of Beavis & Butt-Head and a live gross-out between Real World alumni Dominic Griffin and Puck.
"We're stuffing 20 years of MTV in one room for one night with all the music, irreverence and energy that we're known for," said MTV President Van Toffler. "This should be a memorable night. I can't wait to see Ted Nugent knock an apple off Joe Lieberman's head with a bow-and-arrow."
The show will feature a combination of live, in-house and remote performances from many artists from the channel's first two decades, celebrity guest interviews, performance clips from the MTV vaults and the ritual dismemberment of Matt Pinfield. Performers and guests will be announced within the next few weeks.
