Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Sunday, September 7th, 2025:
2025 MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS
You can be forgiven if you forgot this year's VMA's aired Sunday night on CBS and MTV. The event certainly isn't the pop culture moment it was in the heyday of MTV.
But music videos haven't disappeared. The most popular videos can garner hundreds of millions of views on YouTube and there are a number of music video-oriented FAST channels available. So the story of the music video isn't that they went away. It's that they dropped off the radar of most people once MTV shifted away from playing videos.
FWIW, here's the rundown of winners from this year's VMAs, and if there is one takeaway, it's that the list of winners is primarily comprised of the artists you would expect to win:
Video Of The Year
Ariana Grande: "Brighter Days Ahead"
Artists Of The Year
Lady Gaga
Song Of The Year
Rosé & Bruno Mars: "APT"
Best New Artist
Alex Warren
Best Pop Artist
Sabrina Carpenter
MTV Push Performance Of The Year
January 2025: KATSEYE, "Touch"
Best Collaboration
Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars: "Die With A Smile"
Best Pop
Ariana Grande: "Brighter Days Ahead"
Best Hip-Hop
Doechii: Nokia
Best R&B
Mariah Carey: Type Dangerous"
Best Alternative
Sombr: "Back to Friends"
Best Rock
Coldplay: "All My Love"
Best Latin
Shakira: "Soltera"
Best K-Pop
Lisa ft. Doja Cat & Raye: "Born Again"
Best Afrobeats
Tyla: "Push 2 Start"
Best Country
Megan Moroney: "Am I Okay?"
Best Album
Sabrina Carpenter: "Short n' Sweet"
Best Longform Video
Ariana Grande: "Brighter Days Ahead"
Best Group
Blackpink
Song Of The Summer
Tate McRae: "Just Keep Watching (From F1 The Movie)"
Video For Good
Charli xcx: "Guess Featuring Billie Eilish"
Best Direction
Lady Gaga: "Abracadabra"
Best Art Direction
Lady Gaga: "Abracadabra"
Best Cinematography
Kendrick Lamar: "Not Like Us"
Best Editing
Tate McRae: "Just Keep Watching (From F1 The Movie)"
Best Choreography
Doechii: "Anxiety"
Best Visual Effects
Sabrina Carpenter: "Manchild"
I AM PRETTY SURE THIS IS THE SAME PLAN THEY TRIED TWENTY YEARS AGO
The Wall Street Journal's Jessica Toonkel has a piece about David Ellison's plans to revive Paramount Global's cable network assets and this sounds a lot like what Viacom tried to do twenty years ago:
Its cable business is particularly challenging. Executives intend to revive the networks without increasing spending on them, people familiar with the plans said. Among the options Paramount is discussing, those people said: increasing the cable networks’ digital presence.
Paramount Skydance has also discussed investing further in the networks’ brands and finding ways to make money from them outside of the cable TV business.
“There is probably a place outside the linear world where these brands exist and flourish,” Andy Gordon, chief strategy officer and chief operating officer of Paramount, told reporters at a briefing in August.
Paramount Skydance executives have discussed making MTV’s website a digital destination for fans who want to go deeper than they can on Spotify or YouTube in sampling music or learning about artists and genres, the person said.
This effort might be easier if the fine folks at Paramount had not already shuttered many of MTV and VH1's digital offerings, while also cutting what was left to the bone. They literally got rid of the things that Ellison and company have decided are important. But you might be thinking, "Hey, maybe they realize they made a mistake and have decided to spend some money in order to turn things around?" Um...no:
Its cable business is particularly challenging. Executives intend to revive the networks without increasing spending on them, people familiar with the plans said.
I honestly don't have a clue how that will work. The article discusses how original programming from the linear networks can help drive growth at Paramount+. But given that the linear networks have had their original programming budgets cut around 75% from the levels ten years ago, I'm not sure how much original content is available to be pushed to streaming.
And I certainly don't understand how the company plans to revive the networks without spending more money. This sounds like a variation of the popular media executive refrain of "We're going to make fewer things, but the quality will be better."
I wish them well. I'd like to see those Paramount networks thrive. But I don't see anyone in these ideas that makes me hopeful for their future.
TWEET OF THE DAY
ODDS AND SODS
* A Very Jonas Christmas Movie will premiere Friday, November 14th on Disney+
* The upcoming Netflix series Black Rabbit premiered Sunday night at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Here are some photos from the red carpet and from the reception. Here is the logline of the series, which premieres on Thursday, September 18th: "Set against the backdrop of New York City’s high-pressure nightlife scene, Black Rabbit centers around two brothers who learn just how far family, and the pursuit of success, can push them to the edge. Jake Friedkin (Jude Law) is the charismatic owner of The Black Rabbit, a restaurant and VIP lounge, poised to become the hottest spot in New York. But when his brother, Vince (Jason Bateman), returns to the business unexpectedly, trouble soon follows; opening the door to old traumas and new dangers that threaten to bring down everything they’ve built. Black Rabbit is a propulsive thrill ride and character examination about the way an unbreakable bond between two brothers can shatter their world and everything in its orbit."
* Has Tom Hanks been canceled by conservatives? Eric Deggans writes that U.S. Military Academy has apparently scrapped a parade and public celebration planned to honor Tom Hanks later this month. Since no one has yet provided an official explanation for the cancelation, pundits are assuming it happened because of political retribution: Hanks dared to endorse President Trump’s rival in the 2020 election, Joe Biden, hosting an inauguration special when Biden took office.
* CNN's Pamela Brown interviewed John Malone and asked him about his recent criticisms of the network being too "partisan." He said "the broad perception of CNN today is that it is coming at news with a leftist, or left-of-center bias." He also said while he watched CNN a lot, he also watched a lot of Fox News, in order to see how the same story was covered by different networks. I wish Brown would have asked Malone specifically if he agreed with the "broad perception" of CNN, and if he did, did he think Fox News was coming from a right, or right-of-center bias.
* Celeste Davis has a really unique take on Meghan Markle's fairly horrific Netflix series in a post entitled "Meghan Markle and the curious pull of public domesticity on ambitious women."
SUPPORT THE BACK INDIE MEDIA DRIVE
As I mentioned in an earlier email, Too Much TV is part of a September Back Indie Drive, in which 30+ independent publications are taking part. Each one is run by a creator-model journalist who’s building something sustainable, bold, and deeply needed in today’s fractured media environment.
Every day this month I am going to quickly highlight a publication from the campaign list and I hope you'll check them out. Supporting independent media has never been more important and there are truly some talented journalists on the list:
Subscribe for free here. Or you can can upgrade to a paid subscription at this link.
WHAT'S COMING TOMORROW
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8TH:
Dr. Seuss’s Red Fish, Blue Fish Series Premiere (Netflix)
Entertainment Tonight Season Forty Five Premiere (Syndicated)
Flip Side Season Two Premiere (Syndicated)
Her Mother's Killer Season Premiere (Netflix)
Hot Bench Season Twelve Premiere (Syndicated)
Inside Edition Season Thirty-Eight Premiere (Syndicated)
Irish Blood Season One Finale (Acorn TV)
LEGO Masters Jr. Season One Finale (Fox)
Monday Night Football Season Fifty-Six Premiere (ABC/ESPN)
POV: The Age Of Water (PBS)
Secrets Of Celebrity Sex Tapes (A&E)
The Crow Girl Series Premiere (Acorn TV)
The Drew Barrymore Show Season Six Premiere (Syndicated)
The Perfect Line Series Premiere (Syndicated)
The Quiz With Balls Season Two Finale (Fox)
The View Season Twenty-Nine Premiere (ABC)
Weather Hunters Series Premiere (PBS Kids)
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9TH, 2025:
Becoming Thurgood: America's Social Architect (PBS)
Guts & Glory (Shudder/AMC+)
Jordan Jensen: Take Me With You (Netflix)
Kiss Or Die Series Premiere (Netflix)
Only Murders In The Building Season Five Premiere (Hulu)
Seen & Heard: The History Of Black Television (HBO)
Songs & Stories With Kelly Clarkson Season One Finale (NBC)
The Tech Bro Murders (Investigation Discovery)
Thirst Trap: The Fame. The Fantasy. The Fallout. (Paramount+)
SEE YOU ON MONDAY NIGHT!