'MTV Movie & TV Awards' Brings in Higher Ratings With Young Viewers

From left: Elizabeth Olsen, Leslie Jones, and Kathryn Hahn MTV Movie & TV Awards
From left: Elizabeth Olsen, host Leslie Jones, and Kathryn Hahn at the MTV Movie & TV Awards (Image credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for MTV/ViacomCBS)

At a time when award show viewership is dropping, MTV's bet doubling down on its Movie & TV Awards resulted in higher linear viewership and record social engagements.

This year, in addition to Sunday’s MTV Movie & TV Awards, the network followed it up with MTV Movie & TV Awards: Unscripted, creating a two-day event that was televised across 12 of ViacomCBS's cable networks.

Leslie Jones hosted the Movie & TV Awards. Nikki Glaser hosted the Unscripted program.

On MTV alone, the Movie & TV Awards Sunday was up 42% among 18- to 34-year-olds, compared to a year ago, when MTV aired a special Movie & TV Awards: Greatest of All Time.

Also Read: MTV Gives the 2021 MTV Movie & TV Awards TV’s Biggest Promo Push Two Weeks in a Row

Across all networks the Movie & TV Awards collected 1.3 million viewers and the Unscripted edition garnered 377,000 viewers, for a total of 1.7 million viewers.

MTV says the awards shows beat out the Screen Actors Guild, ESPYs, Critics Choice, People's Choice, and Spirit Awards.

In social, the MTV Movie & TV Awards and MTV Movie & TV Awards: Unscripted rang up 159 million social video views and 15 million engagements across the two nights, the most ever.

#MTVAwards trended for 8 hours in the U.S. and for 4 hours worldwide. The show had 5 trending topics in the U.S. including Anthony Mackie, Addison Rae, Kathryn Hahn and Elizabeth Olsen.

The MTV Movie & TV Awards and MTV Movie & TV Awards: Unscripted were the most social telecasts on cable for two nights excluding sports. 

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.