MTV Movie & TV Awards Scaled Back to Pre-Taped Special Amid Writers Strike

The MTV Movie & TV Awards are going on without a host … and now there won’t be a live audience anymore either.

via: Rolling Stone

Just days before the May 7 event, Barrymore withdrew from the MTV Movie & TV Awards in solidarity with the Writers Guild of America. On Friday, the WGA announced plans to picket outside of Los Angeles’ Barker Hangar, where the event was to be held.

Soon after, presenters and nominees like Jamie Lee Curtis stated they wouldn’t “cross their picket line” and decided to skip the event entirely.

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Faced with a talent drain, the award show’s executive producer Bruce Gillmer said in a statement Friday, “As we carefully navigate how best to deliver the fan first awards’ show we envisioned that our team has worked so hard to create, we’re pivoting away from a live event that still enables us to produce a memorable night full of exclusive sneak peeks, irreverent categories our audience has come to expect and countless moments that will both surprise and delight as we honor the best of film and TV over the past year.”

Celebrities will still appear during the broadcast via pre-taped acceptance speeches, the Hollywood Reporter writes. Gillmer previously told Variety that — in lieu of movie stars — they could fill the vacancies with “athletes and celebrity chefs and all kinds of other talent that are not squarely affected.”

Among the announced presenters for this year’s MTV Movie & TV Awards were Curtis, Tiffany Haddish, Lil Dicky, Gal Gadot, Rodrigo Santoro and Sarah Michelle Gellar, Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback and the casts of Yellowjackets and Joy Ride, while Jennifer Coolidge was to receive the Comedic Genius award.

In stepping down from her hosting gig earlier this week, Barrymore said in a statement, “I have listened to the writers, and in order to truly respect them, I will pivot from hosting the MTV Movie & TV Awards live in solidarity with the strike. Everything we celebrate and honor about movies and television is born out of their creation. And until a solution is reached, I am choosing to wait but I’ll be watching from home and hope you will join me.”

Barrymore and MTV added that the actress would instead serve as host at next year’s awards show.

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