The 2023 MTV Video Music Awards will be held at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., on Tuesday, Sept. 12. It will mark the second year in a row – and the third time in the past five years – that the show has been held at that venue.
This will be the 40th year for the VMAs, which originated as an irreverent, younger-skewing alternative to the Grammy Awards. The VMAs are now as old as the Grammys were in 1998, the year that a performance artist who went by the name Soy Bomb crashed Bob Dylan’s show-capping performance of “Love Sick.”
This will be the first time the show has been held at any one venue two years in a row since 2010-11, when it came from the Nokia Theatre (now Microsoft Theater) in Los Angeles.
This will be the sixth consecutive year that the VMAs has been based on the East Coast. That’s the longest that the traditionally bicoastal show has come from either coast since it was based in Los Angeles seven years in a row from 1987 to 1993. (The 1986 show aired from both coasts – The Palladium in New York and the Universal Amphitheatre in L.A.)
“We’re thrilled to be returning to the Prudential Center in Newark for this year’s VMAs!” Bruce Gillmer, president of music, music talent, programming & events, Paramount and chief content officer, music, Paramount+, said in a statement. “Celebrating one of our biggest nights in music with the Garden State’s incredible fans has been our goal since last year’s highly successful event.”
“The return of the VMAs to the Prudential Center testifies to New Jersey’s enduring standing as a premier venue for large-scale entertainment events,” added the state’s governor, Phil Murphy. “As the home of some of the most internationally renowned names in the music industry, New Jersey is proud to once again partner with Paramount to showcase an array of exciting performances to a global audience.”
Taylor Swift made history at last year’s VMAs, becoming the first artist to win video of the year three times. She won for “All Too Well: The Short Film,” having previously won for “Bad Blood” (with Kendrick Lamar) and “You Need to Calm Down.”
Last year’s show was co-hosted by Jack Harlow, LL Cool J and Nicki Minaj. Comedian Sebastian Maniscalco hosted the show in 2019, its first year at Prudential Center. The show hasn’t had a repeat host since Russell Brand fronted the show in 2008-09.
The VMAs will air across MTV’s global footprint of linear and digital platforms in more than 150 countries and territories, with a potential reach of more than 319 million households, according to MTV’s numbers-crunchers.
