• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, June 6, 2007

Ahhhh... the Internet, and digital video for that matter, are wonderful.

I just finished watching the MTV Movie Awards. It took me all of 20 minutes to watch the entire show, or at least the entire portion of the show that was worth watching. I saw Sarah Silverman rip Hollywood apart and I saw Optimus Prime undertake tired self-promotion. I saw Rihanna and Jay-Z rip it up on stage, and not a single second was spent against a commercial, at least none that I noticed.

Many people have hemmed and hawed about what to do to make these shows more interesting, but I want to take a moment to share my thoughts and see what all of you think! Being a fan of MTV since day one (and, yes I do really mean day one, since I was there for the launch of the rocket, watching from the comfort of my home on our original satellite dish to take in the sights and sounds of a band named Buggles that I had never heard of before), I want nothing more than to see it regain its early success and excitement. If I were running the show for these specials, here's what I would do differently:

First of all, the short films and the stand-up comedy are typically pretty good! Sarah Silverman is funny. Chris Rock is funny. So let's do a little more with these funny people. Those of you watching on TV can partake of the standard show -- but for those with a computer connected to the Internet, what about some ongoing patter from our funny folks? Let these funny folks do a running riff for us to hear, sort of like a DVD's commentary track. Let them narrate what is happening and have some more fun with Hollywood! I like a little improvisation, so let them do their thing, or switch it up and let the recent presenters tell us what's really going on. A little improv from Robin Williams can go a long way.

Use the Web... for real! I checked out the MTV site after the fact and saw people from the show twittering, which is a great start, but let us know about this while it's going on! These shows are supposed to be about the fans, so let the fans blog with the stars, and let random people twitter the heck out of it from the safety of their seats at the show. Fan interaction mingles a little user-generated content with the "professional" stuff. After all, a little risqué discussion really never hurt MTV before! Let fans ask questions of the presenters right after they come off stage, and show these Q&As online, or share them with the TV-viewing audience.

One of the more interesting things I saw on the MTV site? "Unpacking the Swag Bag," a feature where fans can play with the stuff the presenters and famous people get. Once again, MTV could motivate interaction by giving away this free stuff to fans, letting them in on the red carpet and allowing them to own a little of the show.

Speaking of fans, let us dictate which awards get shown and which don't! Allow us to program the show and determine the order of the presenters, in random order. The huge growth of the paparazzi in today's society demonstrates that we like to see stars in unfamiliar and slightly uncomfortable situations, so let's keep 'em on their toes and not let 'em know when they have to march up to the stage to present! A little excitement and suspense could be just what the show needs.

Maybe, just maybe, the whole show should be done through VOD Online and TV? Let us watch only what we want, and extend the show a couple of hours total. If there are five hours of content and I see two that I want, is that a better use of time and advertising than to force us to watch three hours of a show that only has 20 minutes of killer footage?

The theme of my award show would be the fans: fan interaction, control and involvement. We know what we want, so give us a choice. Maybe I'll have to wait until they create the MTV i-Awards -- and maybe, just maybe, they'll give me a call to produce.

I'm available and ready for my close-up!