Video Music Awards to go without a host

MTV manages to surprise viewers almost every year with its Video Music Awards, and this year it has done so before the show even starts: by electing not to have a host.

Producers for the show, which will be telecast live Sunday night, say they concluded that they simply did not need a person or persons onstage guiding the proceedings.

“In this particular year, I don’t think you’re going to miss it,” said Dave Sirulnick, an executive vice president for the channel.

To a much greater extent than other awards shows, the VMAs, as the event is known to viewers, are reimagined every year, with different awards categories, elaborate stages and equally elaborate social media stunts. Twice before, in 2004 and 2007, the show has done without a host, instead having different celebrities present awards and segue into musical acts.

The awards show is typically MTV’s highest-rated telecast of the year, and it has been on the upswing in recent years, with 11.4 million viewers watching in 2010: the channel’s single biggest audience since 2002. But the 2010 edition, hosted by Chelsea Handler, was widely panned, partly because it lacked the kind of must-see television moment in which MTV specializes.

Admittedly, it would have been hard to top 2009, when Kanye West snatched a microphone from Taylor Swift during her acceptance speech, creating a viral video “Kanye moment.”

West closed the show in 2010, alone on the stage, with the premiere of a new song, “Runaway.” Sirulnick said his performance “completed the story” that had started a year earlier.

This year he expects heavy interest in Lady Gaga, the star performer who will open the show. Lady Gaga showed up last year in a dress made of raw meat, which, by the way, was preserved and is now on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland.

Sirulnick also expects interest in a performance by Adele, the British singer whose singles have been in heavy rotation this year, but who has not been seen on television nearly as much.

“It’s kind of rare in 2011 for somebody to get to the level she’s achieved through her music and not have a commensurate level of exposure,” he said.

Other performers Sunday will include Pitbull, Bruno Mars, Lil Wayne, Chris Brown and Young the Giant.