Viewers of the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) urged organizers to “pull the plug” on the award show after this year’s broadcast appeared to face some issues, while one X user declared the event itself has “felt like a funeral.”
“Getting the feeling this might be the last VMAs,” wrote one X user, whose post garnered more than 26,000 “likes” and 1.8 million views.
“We say this every single year,” another commented, adding, “Honestly just pull the plug.”
“There’s no shame in bowing out gracefully,” a third concurred. “Gotta read the room.”
“Award shows are dying in general,” another X user declared.
“The VMAs have felt like a funeral for awhile now. It had its time in the sun, but those days are sadly over and what it’s become doesn’t work,” another asserted.
One X user said they “Didn’t even know it was on last night.”
Another described the VMAs as “a room full of people in the same industry standing around applauding each other, telling everybody how amazing they are, while half of them probably don’t even like each other,” adding, “If this is what award shows have become, just hand everybody a mirror and save us three hours.”
To make matters worse, fans excited who tuned in expecting the VMAs’ iconic opening performance were left outraged when the network aired the Cowboys-Ravens NFL game instead.
“Hold tight, the 2026 #VMAs will take off after the football game finishes,” the official VMAs X account wrote in a Sunday night update. “Live, coming up on CBS & streaming on Paramount+!”
“I’m fucking pissed Madonna is on stage [right now] and we’re watching fucking football!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT TF HAS THIS WORLD COME TO!!!!!!!!!! GENUINELY!!!!!” one X user exclaimed.
“You couldn’t even see the opening performance because it was glitching then entire time,” another complained.
“You guys are a bunch of sick fucks,” a third argued. “This will be the last VMAs because you fucking killed them.”
The award ceremony did not begin streaming until nearly 8:00 p.m. — roughly 20 minutes late — after the initial performance had ended and the first award had already been given out.
Moreover, several music-industry heavyweights — including Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Olivia Rodrigo, and Zara Larsson — reportedly skipped the proceedings entirely, while Madonna was slammed for her “utterly unfocused” comeback performance.
Later, the “Like a Virgin” singer appeared to forget which award she was accepting, and then bizarrely announced that she was trying to pull something out of her “ass” that had been stuck there all night, eliciting awkward laughter from audience members.
Watch Below:
Sunday’s VMAs was hosted by Snoop Dogg at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, California.
Alana Mastrangelo-Wrask is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.