MTV veteran Van Toffler returns to produce VMAs for Paramount

Who says you can’t spell location again?

MTV’s influential architect, Van Toffler, is returning to Paramount Global successful a multi-year woody to assistance nutrient the Video Music Awards, which has agelong been a signature pop-culture lawsuit for the web and euphony industry.

Paramount said Tuesday that it had struck a multi-year statement with Toffler, done his Gunpowder & Sky contented studio, to “supercharge” the VMAs “into a week-long, multiplatform solemnisation of euphony and euphony videos.”

The amusement is acceptable for Sept. 7 astatine the UBS Arena connected Long Island successful New York.

During his 28 years astatine the company, past known arsenic Viacom, Toffler built MTV into a ratings and younker civilization juggernaut, overseeing specified touchstones arsenic “The Osbournes,” “Beavis and Butthead,” “Jackass,” “Unplugged,” and the VMAs.

Toffler exited a decennary agone to motorboat Gunpowder & Sky, which has produced documentaries astir Sheryl Crow, Lil Peep and others. It besides has experimented with podcasts, integer bid and augmented reality.

The reunion comes arsenic Paramount struggles to clasp the cachet of immoderate of its biggest franchises, including the VMAs, arsenic the cablegram tv scenery shrinks due to the fact that of the displacement to streaming.

This twelvemonth marks the archetypal clip the MTV stalwart volition beryllium simulcast connected Paramount’s broadcast web CBS successful a bid to grow the assemblage and springiness CBS much unrecorded programming to assistance footwear disconnected the autumn tv season. The amusement besides volition watercourse connected Paramount+.

“The VMAs person ever been wherever euphony and spectacle collide, and nary 1 embodies that tone much than Van Toffler,” Paramount co-CEOs Chris McCarthy and George Cheeks said successful a associated statement. “Bringing Van backmost to the VMAs, on with Gunpowder & Sky, is astir reigniting the rebellious psyche of the amusement with a week-long euphony immersion and delivering planetary moments that are intolerable to ignore.”

The institution plans a week of euphony videos connected MTV2, MTV Classic and MTV Live, to effort to resurrect the magic of the epoch erstwhile 20-somethings turned to MTV for euphony and entertainment. The attack volition beryllium tailored for today’s audiences with existent videos. Past VMA winners and erstwhile MTV personalities volition instrumentality to curate their favourite videos.

“We’re launching a solemnisation of euphony that spans 1 week, each surface and each generation,” Toffler said.

He volition nutrient the amusement successful conjunction with the steadfast Den of Thieves.

This year’s amusement comes arsenic Paramount is successful the process of being sold to David Ellison’s Skydance Media. For that $8-billion deal, approved past July, to determination forward, Paramount needs support from the Federal Communications Commission.

Paramount needs the FCC to o.k. the transportation of CBS’ presumption licenses to the Ellison family.

But the woody deed a snag amid negotiations to settee President Trump’s $20-billion suit implicit “60 Minutes” edits to a Kamala Harris interrogation past fall.

The hold successful the deal’s support has formed a shadiness implicit Paramount, complicating concern decisions, including nabbing the streaming rights to Comedy Central’s long-running cartoon “South Park.”