From racy performances to an anticipated boy band reunion this year's MTV Video Music Awards had everything.
TV Ratings MTV VMAs Up 66 Percent Due to Justin Timberlake 'N Sync ReunionParents Television Council Blasts MTV's VMAs as Serving Sex to TeensMiley Cyrus' Racy VMAs Performance Hollywood ReactsMTV VMAs 'N Sync Reunites During Justin Timberlake's 'Epic' Vanguard Performance (Video)Note to Miley Cyrus Please Stop Plus Other VMAs RuminationsMTV VMAs Lady Gaga Gives Pep Talk to One Direction Backstage (Video)Featuring live performances from Justin Timberlake Kanye West Lady Gaga and Katy Perry among others VMA viewership jumped more than 60 percent from 2012's mediocre outing averaging 10.1 million viewers in its return to Sunday night.
It was a wonderfully chaotic mess of unforgettable performances everything you could hope for as a producer of a live music show Van Van Van VaVaToffler president of Viacom Media Networks Music Logo Group tells The Hollywood Reporter a day after the awards show later deeming the VMAs a huge success for us.
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Known for its surprises and frenetic energy the VMAs stayed true to character with moments such as Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke's risque team up Daft Punk's unexpected appearance and 'N Sync's historic reunion lighting up social media.
THR jumped on the phone with Toffler to talk about the Cyrus Thicke backlash when the 'N Sync reunion became a reality the repercussions of Stephen Colbert's Daft Punk spoiler a major stage mishap and the biggest disappointment of the night.
The Hollywood Reporter A lot of people have been talking about Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke's racy performance. How did that come about Was that something that came from their camps or was it something that you guys wanted to do
Van Toffler Well really both Robin and Miley have ginormous hits right now so they were both natural for the show. We all saw that Miley actually covered Blurred Lines in her concerts and did a version of it so we felt like why not have them play together as a transition from one to the other as opposed to one performance an award and then go to another performance . Just have them play off each other a little bit and then Robin would go into his new song Give It 2 U . It seemed to work and create some buzz around each of them.
THR How did the rehearsals differ from what we saw on the live show
Toffler Performers turn it up like athletes on game day. Did Miley do every move in rehearsal that she did the night of the show No. We knew her performance was going to be provocative the way her video is. But on live TV the performers turn it up a couple of notches. We didn't see Robin's costume or his suit before he got on stage but Miley definitely brought a different bit of energy to the live show. But clearly she's been making some provocative videos lately.
THR Did you have any concerns heading into the performance (The Parents Television Council criticized the Cyrus Thicke performance saying it simply substituted talent with sex. )
Toffler You have concerns always going into live television. I mean this was our 30th one. We've had people climb onstage we've had people interrupt winners and we've had people stage dive when we've had pyro planned so I think you've got to expect the unexpected. Not everything goes as planned. In fact the stage actually broke a couple of hours before the performances so we weren't sure we could get the big bear on Miley's stage for the live show because of the step change. But we did. It was in a different position. We had to change a bunch of things leading up to it but we knew it would be a memorable performance just like Gaga's open and Justin Timberlake's medley.
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THR Another big highlight was Justin Timberlake's 15 minute performance. Is that the longest performance ever at the VMAs
Toffler I would say it's safe to say yes. He's had such an illustrious wonderful career. He's arguably one of the best live performers in music now so more Justin we need to do it.
THR Was that always the plan to have him perform that long Did it expand as discussions went on
Toffler No. I can say it wasn't always planned. We had a back and forth I think this was his sixth or seventh time Justin's been on the show with and without 'N Sync and we have such shorthand with him and respect when he says I wanna go from this stage to that stage. Can you help design something for me and potentially bring some surprise guests you really can't adhere to any strict rules about a performance or what you've done in the past. That's always our mantra to continue to reinvent ourselves and our show so that it's always full of surprises.
THR When did talks about an 'N Sync reunion first begin
Toffler When we talked to Justin about the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award and how we could effectively capture his career and what the performance would be like. Clearly those 'N Sync songs are a big part of his musical history.
THR Several months ago
Toffler Weeks not months.
THR When was that portion of Justin Timberlake's performance finalized
Toffler At showtime. (Laughs.) Just about when the show started at 9 o'clock when they arrived to the building. We did something similar with Michael Jackson. He was performing at the Garden and we talked to him about doing a guest thing with 'N Sync at the 2001 VMAs and we didn't know if it was going to happen until Michael's car had arrived at the Lincoln Center where the VMAs were held that he was going to come on. Justin and I were talking about that. (Laughs.) He wished he had a little more rehearsal time with that. But yeah we probably knew it was going to happen day of show.
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THR Daft Punk's surprise appearance at the VMAs was also a big headline leading up to the show. Did Stephen Colbert's VMA spoiler on The Colbert Report affect what the group ended up doing Were they originally slated to perform
Toffler No they were going to appear. We did an exclusive clip shot in 65 mm film to Lose Yourself to Dance which is their next song. They were always going to appear on our show and not perform.
THR So his VMA spoiler didn't affect the plan
Toffler No though he did have his way with me and my name. All for the sake of comedy.
THR What are your thoughts on that particular Colbert Report segment
Toffler You know it's all in good sport. Stephen's a funny man. I wish he used a better picture of me but I'm all good with it.
THR How did Lady Gaga's open which had five costume changes come together
Toffler We knew there would be numerous costume changes but she had rehearsed for quite some time off site and she's always a memorable performance either as her alter ego Joe Calderone or with five or six costume changes. We were shocked that she was going to try to pull that off but were amazed at the way she was able to do it almost off camera so you didn't really see it happen in the course of three or four minutes. We said Please open our show and you take the rest from there.
THR If you could go back in time what would you do differently
Toffler Well I wish the stage didn't break so we didn't have to change things around in the format. We had some minor audio issues and I personally would love to do a four or five hour show I'm not sure if that's the best viewer experience and let everybody go long. But I think you always want to leave them wanting more and I think if you can leave enough room for those combustible moments that happens when Kanye walks up onstage during Taylor Swift's acceptance speech or Billie Joe Armstrong jumps into the audience that's all we hope. We clearly had some memorable performances last night.
THR What was the biggest disappointment on the night
Toffler That it ended. I always want more disruptions and chaos than everyone else does in the trucks so I could use more chaos. That's about it. Otherwise I thought it was probably one of our best VMAs with some of the best performances we've had in our 30 year history to tell you the truth.
THR What was the most surprising outcome given the reactions and results of the show
Toffler (Laughs.) I didn't know that Gaga and Taylor and Selena Gomez were such big 'N Sync fans. You talk about how critics attacked them when they were in their heyday and then everyone gets up on their feet everyone talks about 'N Sync. By the way Justin's sales have gone up like a thousand percent 'N Sync sales have gone up hundreds of percent in 12 to 24 hours. To see Gaga standing up singing the words to their song I was overwhelmed by the response to them.
THR While Kevin Hart made a few jokes that he wasn't hosting the VMAs during the evening why go hostless this year Will you go hostless again
Toffler We've done it in the past. I think when you have so many set changes and wonderful performances and collabos like Miley and Robin and Gaga on the front end and Katy Perry on the Brooklyn Bridge at the end you don't need a host. It would just have taken time away from those killer performances.
THR Was it a logistical nightmare planning Katy Perry's Brooklyn Bridge closer
Toffler It's not our first exterior performance. We've worked with Brooklyn for a while and we just couldn't really promote it as much as we wanted to because it would have been more mayhem. It actually turned out well. They had closed the Brooklyn Bridge not for us but for construction so we just had to light it and it looked great in the background.
THR Were there things we didn't see or segments that were cut out at the last minute for time or other reasons
Toffler The odd thing is we actually had to add time. We were thankful that Jimmy Fallon gave a sermon up there prior to presenting the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award where he broke into a sweat introducing Justin because the set didn't turn and the loading time took a little bit longer. We were worried about getting Bruno Mars' pyro on the stage we had to change Drake's set changing a bit. There was definitely chaos and mayhem behind the scenes but I don't think the viewers noticed a lot of that.
THR Are you looking to return to Brooklyn or are you looking at other locations for next year
Toffler Definitely if they'd have us. I don't know if we'll go back next year but we loved it. We had a great experience.
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