2016 MTV Video Music Awards
The 2016 MTV Video Music Awards were held on Sunday night, August 28, 2016 at 9:00–11:54pm EDT at Madison Square Garden in Midtown Manhattan, Manhattan, New York City. Adele's "Hello" was the most nominated video with seven categories. This marked the 33rd edition of the live broadcast. Beyoncé led all winners with eight awards. Rihanna received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award after performing several medley numbers during the ceremony. Britney Spears marked her first performance at the awards show since the heavily criticized 2007 show nine years prior. Beyoncé won eight awards to bring her career total of wins to 25 VMAs, overtaking Madonna's previous record of 20 awards, making her the artist with the most wins in the history of the award show.
The ceremony was shown on multiple Viacom cable networks and through smart TV and mobile devices which allow access to MTV's TV Everywhere-authenticated live stream within their app, along with MTV's website and Facebook Live.
Compared to the previous year's show which had a lesser amount of Viacom networks simulcasting the ceremony, the 2016 ceremony's numbers showed a 35% drop across the measured networks carrying the ceremony, making it the lowest rated ceremony in MTV's 32-year history beating out 1996 and 2015, totalling a cumulative 6.5 million viewers, though the network also claimed substantial additional streaming viewership across MTV apps and Facebook Live. 3.3 million viewers saw the show via MTV.
Presenters
Pre-show
- DJ Khaled – host
- Charlamagne Tha God and Lizzo – co-hosts
- Lizzo – presented Song of Summer
Main show
- Sean "Diddy" Combs — presented Best Hip-Hop Video
- Hailee Steinfeld — spoke about Best New Artist voting procedures
- Chance the Rapper — introduced Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj
- Alicia Keys — presented Best Male Video
- Michael Phelps — introduced Future
- Kanye West — premiered "Fade" music video
- Naomi Campbell — introduced Rihanna's second performance
- Rita Ora and Ansel Elgort — introduced Nick Jonas and Ty Dolla $ign
- Serena Williams — introduced Beyoncé
- Bebe Rexha and Tove Lo — presented the winners of professional categories
- Jaden Smith and Shameik Moore — presented Best Collaboration Video
- Kim Kardashian — introduced Britney Spears and G-Eazy
- Simone Biles, Laurie Hernandez, Madison Kocian and Aly Raisman — presented Best Female Video
- Tracee Ellis Ross — introduced Rihanna's third performance
- Fifth Harmony — presented Best New Artist
- Alessia Cara and Troye Sivan — introduced The Chainsmokers and Halsey
- Jimmy Fallon — presented Video of the Year
- Mary J. Blige — introduced Rihanna's final performance
- Drake — presented the Video Vanguard Award to Rihanna
Winners and nominees
This year's nominees were presented on July 26, 2016, on MTV's Facebook page live.Winners are highlighted in '''Bold'''