Van Toffler, who helped construct the VMAs right into a pop-culture phenomenon, is returning to the present through a multi-year take care of his studio, Gunpowder & Sky. They’ll function producers of the 2025 present, which is about for Sept. 7, alongside manufacturing firm Den of Thieves.
Toffler’s mission, in keeping with a press release, is “to convey again the sting, spontaneity and punch that made the VMAs probably the most talked-about annual occasion.” The plan is “to supercharge the present from a single night time right into a week-long, multiplatform celebration of music and music movies main as much as the primary occasion.”
CBS will current the 2025 Video Music Awards for the primary time. The present will air stay coast-to-coast from UBS Enviornment in Elmont, N.Y., on Sunday, Sept. 7 (8:00-11:00 p.m. ET/5:00-8:00 p.m. PT), and stream on Paramount+. The CBS broadcast may also simulcast on MTV with a one-hour stay pre-show to air throughout Paramount Media Networks.
Within the run-up to the 2025 Video Music Awards, MTV plans to air every week of 24/7 music movies, each basic and present throughout MTV2, MTV Reside and MTV Traditional. Previous VMA winners and prime MTV personalities will return to curate and highlight their seven favourite music movies of all time.
“The VMAs have all the time been the place music and spectacle collide, and nobody embodies that spirit greater than Van Toffler,” Paramount co-CEOs Chris McCarthy and George Cheeks stated in a press release. “Bringing Van again to the VMAs, together with Gunpowder & Sky, is about reigniting the rebellious soul of the present with a week-long music immersion and delivering world moments which can be inconceivable to disregard.”
“We’re not simply producing a present,” Toffler stated in a press release. “We’re launching a celebration of music that spans one week, each display and each era. Music has all the time been the heartbeat of the VMAs, however the present’s soul comes from its willingness to interrupt guidelines, embrace unpredictability and mirror the occasions. That is about honoring that spirit whereas blowing open what’s doable throughout each format.”
Toffler, 66, joined MTV in 1987, six years after the community’s launch. He was president of Viacom Media Networks Music & Brand Group at Viacom from March 2008 to April 2015. In January 2016, along with Floris Bauer and Otter Media, he fashioned Gunpowder & Sky, a digital content material firm geared toward millennials.
Gunpowder & Sky (the place Toffler is CEO) has constructed a portfolio throughout movie, TV, VR, podcasts and digital collection. The corporate’s credit embrace Audible’s Phrases + Music, Spotify’s Drawn & Recorded, Amazon’s Seismic and YouTube’s Launched, in addition to documentaries on artists starting from Sheryl Crow to Lil Peep and movies similar to Her Odor, Lords of Chaos and Hearts Beat Loud.
The 2024 VMAs delivered its greatest multi-network viewers in 4 years (up 25% year-over-year) and ranked as probably the most social VMAs in historical past, with 66.7 million social interactions.
Megan Thee Stallion hosted final yr’s VMAs, which aired on Sept. 11, 2024, from UBS Enviornment. Taylor Swift was the highest nominee with 12 nods and the highest winner with seven Moon Individual trophies, together with for artist of the yr and video of the yr for “Fortnight,” a collab with Post Malone. Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” gained tune of the yr, en path to a Grammy win for greatest pop solo efficiency.
Toffler and Gunpowder & Sky be part of an already-stacked lineup of execs heading up the 2025 Video Music Awards. The present is govt produced by Bruce Gillmer and Den of Thieves co-founder Jesse Ignjatovic. Barb Bialkowski is showrunner. Alicia Portugal is co-executive producer. Jackie Barba is govt in control of manufacturing. Wendy Plaut is govt in control of celeb expertise. Lisa Lauricella is govt in control of music expertise.