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MTV VMA ratings plummet, Taylor Swift misses show for jury duty

By | Published on Tuesday 30 August 2016

Taylor Swift

It was the MTV VMAs this weekend, which you may or may not have noticed. Many didn’t, it seems, as the awards show saw its TV ratings drop for the fourth year in a row. Despite being shown across eleven channels in the US, the number of people tuning in dropped by 34%, according to the New York Times.

Possibly part of the problem is Kanye fatigue. It was the rapper who was again wheeled out to do his whole ‘deliver a long speech and hopefully say something controversial’ thing. Rihanna and Nicki Minaj performed (the former four times), as did Britney Spears as part of that big comeback. But the most interesting thing about this year’s VMAs was that Taylor Swift didn’t turn up because she was reporting for jury duty in Nashville.

Swift was put forward as a potential juror in an aggravated rape and kidnapping case, but was dismissed after she said she felt she would not be able to be impartial, due to her ongoing sexual harassment lawsuit against a fan.

“She asked to be left off out of concern for an upcoming trial in Denver where she was – she used the term – ‘groped’ by a fan at a meet-and-greet”, said a spokesperson for the Davidson County District Attorney General’s Office.

So, the court trip was a short one, but still meant no MTV awards ceremony for her. She didn’t win anything this year anyway. Unless you count Calvin Harris’s Best Male Video prize for ‘This Is What You Came For’, a song she co-wrote. Harris didn’t thank her in his acceptance speech, which was one of the biggest controversies of the show. Which perhaps shows how much of its edge the VMAs ceremony has lost.

For the rest of the awards, it’s probably safe to assume that Beyonce won any category you can think of.



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