Leslie Jones will host the 2021 MTV Movie & TV Awards, the network announced Wednesday.
This year’s show will be part of a two night event. The MTV Movie & TV Awards will air live from Los Angeles on May 16. On May 17, the inaugural edition of MTV’s Movie & TV Awards: Unscripted will air, honoring the top reality TV shows and moments.
Awards shows, long a tentpole for MTV, have not been faring well lately. Sunday’s Oscars telecast saw its ratings dive more than 50% from last year’s already record low levels. The Movie & TV Awards didn't appear during the pandemic in 2020, but viewership was down 46% in 2019, when they appeared on 10 Viacom cable networks.
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Jones is best known for her run on NBC’s Saturday Night Live and appearances in films including Ghostbusters. Jones currently hosts and executive produces Supermarket Sweep on ABC.
She is nominated for an MTV Movie & TV Award this year in the Best Comedic Performance category for her role in Coming 2 America.
As part of the Unscripted awards, fans can vote to pick winners in 25 categories including Best Kiss, Breakthrough Performance and Best Show at vote.mtv.com.
Executive Producers for both the 2021 MTV Movie & TV Awards and the Movie & TV Awards: Unscripted are MTV's Bruce Gillmer, Wendy Plaut and Vanessa Whitewolf and Den Of Thieves’ Jesse Ignjatovic and Barb Bialkowski. Jackie Barba and Alicia Portugal are executives in charge of production and Lisa Lauricella serves as the music talent executive for both events.
Sponsors of the two-night celebration include the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s The Real Cost program and Sonic Drive-In.
