• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, June 2, 2009

Feel like there's nothing new on TV?  On Sunday, Sacha Baron Cohen's naked ass was inches from Eminem's face during the MTV Movie Awards.

It revives one's faith that the TV programming gods still haven't lost their touch. More important, MTV's advertisers really got their money's worth for a slow Sunday in May.

Eminem stormed out of the event after Cohen's forthcoming film character, Bruno, landed squarely in the rapper's lap -- bums up -- after hovering overhead in feathery white wings above the show's audience.

In recent months MTV has had some ratings trouble, so no doubt events like these helped to boost its lackluster profile. MTV's other big award show, the MTV Video Music Awards, also regularly counts on unexpected (or staged) events -- Madonna planting one on Britney Spears, or a saucy-mouthed Andrew Dice Clay.

The fact that MTV cameras got the full view close-up of the event means the production, programming, and marketing executives always get some short-term gains from the visibly testy -- or staged -- performers' nerves.

This wasn't the first time Eminem's own feathers were ruffled. Back in 2002, the rapper was tested during an interview by Triumph the Insult Comic Dog at the MTV Video Music Awards.

What does this all mean? Scripted/unscripted "live" TV moments are needed to shock us a bit -- or just to keep us honest -- from time to time.  That's why we watch awards show anyway.

TV advertisers never really seemed unnerved by all of this. But it still seems a far cry from those video advertisers giving large sums of money to other similar unscripted stuff -- those user-generated videos on YouTube and elsewhere.

The downside from this kind of stunt is that it's like sugar -- a quick high and then back to feeling like crap. While one is still buzzing, guess where MTV's viewership will be in the coming months.