WTF! IT SHOULDNT BE CALLED THE MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS! WHEN IS THE LAST TIME YOU SAW A FULL MUSIC VIDEO ON MTV?

MTV announced the plans for its 26th annual Video Music Awards last week, but with the news came the harsh reminder that the network has all but abandoned the videos that gave the event its name.
When was the last time anyone saw a full-length music video on the channel that didn't fill time during the credit roll of "Paris Hilton's My New BFF" or wasn't part of a Michael Jackson tribute?

While it is exciting that MTV will be bringing the awards back to New York this year, along with the celebs and parties that come with it, one can't help feeling a little guilty about celebrating MTV's success at hoodwinking the audience.

Music Television isn't a place for music videos anymore, so why is anyone pretending to honor them?

The original mission of MTV, to be a portal for artists to be seen and heard through their music videos, has long been retired, and so it's about time that MTV ended the charade.

Let's call it like it is. The MTV Music Awards.

The "video" has gone the way of the radio star.

It's not like this change would alter the show drastically. The awards are, after all, a celebration of a wide array of musical genres, with over-the-top performances by the hottest artists of the year. Very little attention is paid to the actual videos (a glaringly obvious fact confirmed last year when Britney Spears won several awards for what was probably one of her worst videos, "Piece of Me").

People will still watch. But acknowledging that the show, like the main network, isn't about music videos anymore could present a new opportunity for MTV.

MTV officials could finally 'fess up and admit what viewers have been thinking for the better part of a decade: that the music video is no longer the network star.

Why not be true to the latest programming directive and create an annual MTV Reality Show Awards?

It could be two or three more hours of original programming they can add to their non-video-airing lineup and play in repeats over and over and over.

Sure, MTV programmers have attempted the idea before, with the half-hearted "First Ever Reality Awards" in 2004, but that was long before the Lauren Conrad years. Long before they fully accepted their new reality manifesto.

Long before "TRL" was canceled.

So let's get Mark Burnett on the horn to produce it.

Send out invites to "The Hills," "The City," Hilton's "BFFs" and Cancun's "Real World"-ers. Those folks show up to the opening of an envelope anyway — we might as well give them a valid reason to get out of bed in the morning.

"Randy Jackson Presents America's Best Dance Crew" host Mario Lopez can pull double duty.

Categories could look similar to those in the MTV Movie Awards: Best Villain, Best Kiss and Best Fight.

They could also include more genre-specific zingers, like Best Hot Tub Threesome, Best Confessional and Most Embarrassing Moment Caught on Film.

And why not hand out moon men equipped with little camcorders as the awards?

They could even make a reality show about the making of the Reality Show Awards and call it a day.