Tonight was the broadcast of the MTV video music awards. I grew up loving MTV and I loved watching the music videos of my favorite new bands. I was introduced to a lot of new music by seeing their videos for the first time on MTV. I didn't even have cable for years, but I would watch MTV whenever I got a chance at a friends house or my grandparent's house. I even watched that first little reality show called "The Real World" when if first aired. Back when it was one of the only non music video related shows. The times they have changed on MTV. This is the schedule for MTV tomorrow.

6am -9:30am (videos...for real...some videos on in the early morning when nobody is watching)
9:30-1:00pm (my super sweet 16...reality show)
1:00-3:30pm (2 1/2 hours of bad rich kid o.c. style reality shows such as the hills, etc.)
3:30-4:30pm (total request live...partial videos with lame commentary and crowd shots)
4:30-6:00pm (another 1 1/2 hours of bad reality shows about rich o.c. kids and some stupid game show)
6:00-8:00pm (the real world...this show is now beyond ridiculous)
8:00-1:00am (5 more hours of reality shows about rich spoiled white kids with relationship problems and a show about a 17 year old pro skater with some issues)
1:00-2:00am (celebrity rap superstar....reality show)
2:00-4:00am (parental control...reality show in which the parents choose who their kids go on dates with)
4:00-9:00am (music videos and total request live...so the only place to watch videos is in the early morning)

So in one 24 hour period on MTV there are only 6 1/2 hours devoted to anything that is remotely related to music videos. Of the remaining 17 1/2 hours, only one show has anything remotely to do with music or music videos. The other shows really have no place on a show calling itself "Music Television." This is seriously a typical day for MTV. The only difference this year is that in order to try and get better ratings for the live airing of the awards show, they decided to not repeat the show over and over again the next day. I can think of countless shows they could have on MTV that would actually fit into a station supposedly devoted to music videos. They should obviously play more videos. Even Justin Timberlake realized this. He made a little shout out against MTV when he won his awards tonight, begging them to play more videos and less reality shows. There are so many interesting people in the music business. They could have hours and hours of interesting documentaries on so many different musicians. There are also so many amazing videos that they could still show. They could have hour long shows devoted to old 80s and 90s videos or have shows that showed artists earlier videos. They could have great themed video hours. Indie (alternative) videos, metal videos, hip hop videos, r & b videos, electronica vidoes. They did have shows like this before. Alternative Nation, Yo! MTV raps, and Headbangers Ball were on every single day. 120 minutes was on every Sunday and always showed some amazing videos that did not usually get shown on MTV. They did have a game show called remote control, and a couple cartoons like beavis & buthead, daria and aeon flux. But even Beavis & Buthead showed music videos. And these shows never took over the programming. There was always more than just a couple hours of videos. I know that MTV now has MTV2 and some other shows on the higher up cable packages. But the original MTV should still have music as their focus. If they really feel that people need reality shows or fake reality shows, they could at least try and make them about music.