MTV revamps iconic award show

By Charlie Monforte

MTV has made revamps on its iconic award show and this coming May 7 it will hand out awards in non-gendered categories that would throw best male and female celebrities competing against each other like for the Best Actor in TV Show category.

After making a revamp, the MTV's new award system is going really gender-neutral as MTV president Chris McCarthy felt that doing away with a gender distinction is "a good way to acknowledge the shift in the audience's consciousness."

The word "actor" in the Best Actor in TV Show category is generally seen in MTV as a non-gendered word. For the first time, programmes shown on TV and streaming services will also be included in the awards, according to Sky News.

There will be a total of 16 categories of awards to be handed out, five of which are new - Best Host, Best Reality Competition, Best American Story, the Best Tearjerker, and Best Fight Against the System.

In the last category, McCarthy is honoring "fight" stories or fighting characters in MTV's apparent tribute to the resurgent activism taking place in the U.S. at present.

McCarthy said point blank that young audience are "reviving an activism voice that we haven't seen in years, and we want to celebrate that and encourage it."

He felt the gender distinction is "really antiquated" and he does not see those lines anymore these days. He has description for today's audience: "they have platform agnostic" approach to content consumption.

MTV on its website announced that Adam Devine will host the MTV Movie & TV Awards, dubbed as "the biggest party of the year" on Sunday, May 7th at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA, 8 p.m. It will be aired live on MTV.

The incoming awarding fete would be his first after he assumed October last year as MTV president. When he assumed the top position replacing Sean Atkins, the network that has been at the center of youth culture was struggling for relevance.

The new award system of MTV as brainchild of McCarthy is seen as one of the ways to lead out from MTV's falling ratings as the network continues to fight for attention with the present youthful audience whose allegiances change quickly.

McCarthy had been credited for his success of overseeing sister networks VH1 and Logo.