Taylor Swift’s 2022 MTV Video Music Awards album announcement was “…Ready For It?”: unexpected.
According to Billboard, VMAs producers Bruce Gillmer and Jesse Ignjatovic, “all the stars aligned” at this year’s award show, resulting in higher ratings.
Swift, he said, deserves some of the credit because she “wanted to come.” “She hadn’t been out in public for months and months,” Gillmer added.
“Her fans are so devoted that her mere presence elevates our show.” She not only appeared, but she also won, and she won big. She also chose our stage to announce her new record, which gave us a massive boost coming out of the show,” Gillmer explained, adding that the singer and the ceremony “have a long history together, a highly successful history, and there’s mutual love and respect.”
“That wasn’t planned,” he says of the album’s release. We were fortunate to have that.”
Swift’s representative has been contacted for comment.
The “All Too Well” singer sent fans into a frenzy with her announcement during her acceptance speech for Video of the Year, which happened to be the night’s final award.
“I thought it might be a fun moment to tell you that my brand-new album comes out Oct. 21,” she revealed, which fans quickly recognised as Kanye West’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian’s birthday.
“I will tell you more at midnight,” she teased, before taking to social media to reveal the appropriate title of her upcoming project: “Midnights.”
The singer of “Shake It Off” has a long history with the VMAs. Kanye West famously interrupted her acceptance speech at the 2009 ceremony, sparking an on-again, off-again feud between the two. She returned to the VMAs stage a year later to perform “Innocent,” which was inspired by the West incident.
In 2015, she arrived with her famous “squad” of friends to accept “Video of the Year” for “Bad Blood,” and she also put an end to her feud with Nicki Minaj that night, joining the “Super Bass” rapper for a performance of “The Night is Still Young,” as well as presenting West with the Video Vanguard Award.
The VMAs mainstay premiered her “Look What You Made Me Do” video during the 2017 show, and she performed a medley of hits during the 2019 show.
The producers also revealed that they fought hard to get a remote performance from Harry Styles at his Madison Square Garden show, which was part of a 15-day residency there.
They do, however, credit Fergie’s surprise appearance with Jack Harlow during the show’s opening performance with keeping viewers of all demographics hooked.
“The other favourable wind we got was about Fergie.” “She’s in California and hasn’t been on our stage or any stage in a long time,” Gillmer explained.
“Fergie confirmed two days earlier; rehearsed at the last minute.” “She’s clearly just a pro,” Ignjatovic stated.
“We had to have a tremendous amount of support from her label, Atlantic Records, from her manager, and even with all of that, it was a long shot.” That came through at the eleventh hour because the stars were aligned. “Almost every major plot point in that show could have gone either way,” Gillmer added.
“We wouldn’t be honest if we didn’t tell you that we had a lot of good fortune, blessings, and luck in terms of timing and things falling into place,” Gillmer said of the night’s success.
According to preliminary Nielsen figures for the VMAs, its pre-show, and two on-air replays, both TV and cross-platform consumption ratings were up from last year’s show.
According to the numbers, 3.9 million viewers tuned in to watch the festivities on Sunday across 12 Paramount Global cable channels and the broadcast network The CW — a 3% increase from the previous year’s programming, which drew 3.7 million viewers.