The Baltimore Ravens and Dallas Cowboys’ Sunday Night Football game turned out to serve as its own delay of game for the 2026 MTV Music Video Awards.
While the Sunday, September 27, awards show was scheduled to begin promptly at 7:30 p.m. ET, the broadcast didn’t actually begin airing until almost 20 minutes later.
While fans were waiting on the broadcast to begin, MTV viewers watched a prerecorded feature highlighting previous Video Vanguard recipients.
“Hold tight, the 2026 #VMAs will take off after the football game finishes 🚀✨,” the network tweeted out at the time.
So, why was the VMAs delayed? The awards ceremony was simulcast on CBS and MTV, the former which was airing the Ravens and Cowboys’ matchup just before showtime. The game ended in a 31-31 tie, forcing both teams into overtime. After putting up an additional three points, the Ravens proved victorious before the awards show began.
The ceremony itself did not pause for the SNF game, according to Variety social media footage from inside Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater showing that Madonna’s opening performance began promptly as scheduled.
Madonna, 68, kicked off the Sunday show with a show-stopping medley alongside fellow musicians Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX and Sombr, plus additional cameos from Debi Mazar and Julia Garner, the latter who was set to star in the now-scrapped biopic about the Queen of Pop.
“Madonna just killed it,” host Snoop Dogg gushed in his opening monologue. “Now, that is an icon!”
Madonna is up for 13 trophies, the evening’s record, followed closely behind by Taylor Swift with 11. Swift, 36, made the whole red carpet shimmer in a corseted Tamara Ralph gown with a metallic silver skirt. The “Patient Zero” singer will also receive the inaugural Artist Director Honors trophy.
“Across her work, Swift has brought an increasingly expansive approach to storytelling, creating interconnected narratives, cinematic worlds and recurring details that invite audiences deeper into each project,” a press release shared before the ceremony read. “The inaugural MTV VMA Artist Director Honors recognizes that body of work, while also underscoring the growing role artists play in shaping how their music is brought to life on screen.”
In addition to the honor, Swift is set to premiere the music video she directed for “Patient Zero” during the show. The new single appears on the extended version of Showgirl, which was released on Friday, September 25.
“I was hanging out with a bunch of friends, and one of my friends told us that she had been reached out to by the new girlfriend of an ex of hers, asking for guidance on if she had had the same experiences with this guy,” the 14-time Grammy winner told the U.K.’s Capital FM of her songwriting inspiration. “Everyone in our group just immediately started saying like, ‘Oh, I’ve been through that too.’”
Swift continued at the time, “I thought to myself, ‘If this has happened to all of us, it’s such an interesting kind of angle on humanity and on relationships. I wonder if I could write something from the perspective of getting this phone call, and really only from the perspective and the side of the phone call of the ex who’s been through it before.’”
