2006 MTV Video Music Awards

2006 MTV Video Music Awards
Date	Thursday, August 31, 2006
Location	Radio City Music Hall, New York, New York
Country	United States
Hosted by	Jack Black
Most awards	James Blunt and Gnarls Barkley (2 each)
Most nominations	Shakira and Red Hot Chili Peppers (7 each)
Website	http://www.mtv.com/ontv/vma/past-vmas/2006/
Television/radio coverage
Network	MTV MTV2 MHD
Viewership	5.77 million
Produced by	Done and Dusted Salli Frattini Dave Sirulnick
Directed by	Hamish Hamilton
← 2005 · MTV Video Music Awards · 2007 →

The 2006 MTV Video Music Awards aired live on August 31, 2006, honoring the best music videos from June 11, 2005, to June 26, 2006.^[1] The show was hosted by Jack Black at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

The 2006 Video Music Awards marked the first time viewers were able to vote for all performers' categories (Best Video; Best Male, Female, and Group Videos; and genre categories). Like previous years, the artistic categories (Best Direction, Best Cinematography, etc.) are still chosen by music industry professionals. The 2006 Awards also discontinued the major category Breakthrough Video.

The show was criticized by fans and viewers as being uninteresting or lacking substance. The award ceremony's ratings were down 28% from the 8 million viewers it averaged in 2005 and down 45% from the 10.3 million viewers it averaged in 2004.^[2]

Shakira and Red Hot Chili Peppers received the most nominations, with seven each. Avenged Sevenfold won Best New Artist and "I Write Sins Not Tragedies", by Panic! at the Disco, became the first video to win Video of the Year without winning a single other award since "This Note's for You" by Neil Young in 1989.