After Drew Barrymore drops out as host, MTV Awards show won’t be “live event”

In the wake of Drew Barrymore’s decision to drop out as host of the upcoming MTV Movie & TV Awards — as a show of solidarity for striking Hollywood writers — organizers have decided that Sunday’s show will no longer be in a “live event” format.

The news also comes after the Writer’s Guild of America announced Friday afternoon that it planned to picket outside the show, which was slated to be held at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California. 

In a statement provided to CBS News Friday night, Bruce Gillmer, president of music, talent, programming and events for Paramount Global, said the show will be “pivoting away from a live event that still enables us to produce a memorable night full of exclusive sneak peaks, irreverent categories our audience has come to expect, and countless moments that will both surprise and delight as we honor the best of film and TV over the past year.”

No further details on the format were immediately provided. Prior to Friday’s announcement, organizers had already decided not to have a red carpet or pre-show celebrity interviews. The show will air at 8 p.m. Eastern time Sunday on MTV, but it’s unclear if it will still take place at the Barker Hangar.

MTV is part of Paramount Global, which also owns CBS News.

Barrymore announced Thursday that she was withdrawing from hosting duties in order to be “in solidarity” with the more than 11,000 members of the WGA who went on strike Tuesday, their first in 16 years, after failing to negotiate a new three-year contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the trade group which represents major Hollywood studios such as Netflix, Sony, Disney, Paramount, NBC Universal, Amazon and Apple.  

The two sides are far apart on issues including residuals from streaming shows, staffing levels in writers’ rooms, and the role of artificial intelligence in penning film and television scripts.

The impact of the strike is already being felt across the entertainment industry, temporarily shuttering production on shows including “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” “Saturday Night Live” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

Barrymore, meanwhile, said that she plans to return as host of the show in 2024.