VMAs 2026: How to Watch, Start Time and Who’s Performing Sunday

• The 2026 MTV Video Music Awards air live Sunday, Sept. 27, at 7:30 p.m. ET / 4:30 p.m. PT on CBS and MTV, from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
• The live stream is on Paramount+ Premium. Because CBS carries the show, a digital antenna picks it up for free.
• Snoop Dogg hosts, Madonna opens with her first VMAs performance since 2003, and Taylor Swift premieres her “Patient Zero” video.

The 2026 VMAs air live on Sunday, Sept. 27, at 7:30 p.m. ET (4:30 p.m. PT) on CBS and MTV at the same time, and stream live on Paramount+. The show is scheduled for two hours, ending at 9:30 p.m. ET.

Snoop Dogg hosts for the first time. Madonna, who leads the nominations with 11, opens the night, and Taylor Swift, with nine, receives a new honor and debuts a music video on air.

What time do the VMAs start, and what channel are they on?

The broadcast starts at the same moment across the country, so the local time depends on where you are:

• Eastern: 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
• Central: 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
• Mountain: 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
• Pacific: 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
• U.K.: 12:30 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. BST, early Monday

The channels are CBS and MTV, which carry the same live feed. Both networks belong to Paramount, which also owns Paramount+, the streaming home of the show.

How to watch the VMAs without cable

The CBS simulcast is what opens the free route. CBS is a broadcast network, so its local station sends the signal over the air, and any TV with a digital antenna can tune in without a subscription. MTV, a cable channel, does not work that way.

Streaming the VMAs on Paramount+

Paramount+ has two plans, and they do not treat the show the same way:

• Paramount+ Premium ($13.99 a month) streams the local CBS feed live, so it shows the VMAs as they happen.
• Paramount+ Essential ($8.99 a month) has no live CBS feed. The full show arrives there on demand starting Monday, Sept. 28.

The difference comes from what each plan licenses. Premium carries your local CBS station in real time; Essential only gets the recorded programs afterward. Live TV services that carry CBS or MTV, such as YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV, also show it as it airs.

Who is hosting and performing at the 2026 VMAs?

Snoop Dogg, 54, is the host. He has 13 VMA nominations and three wins across his career, but had never run the show until now. Presenters include Charli xcx, Troye Sivan, Tyla, David Corenswet, Teyana Taylor, Jeff Probst and Ciara Miller.

Madonna’s first VMAs performance in 23 years

Madonna‘s last performance on the VMAs stage was the 2003 opener, when she sang with Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott. She returns this year as the most-nominated artist of the night, with 11 nods, led by “Confessions II — The Film.”

The rest of the confirmed lineup:

• Lisa, Raye, Shaboozey, Gunna and Sienna Spiro
• Gener8ion with Yung Lean
• Kacey Musgraves, in a tribute to Dolly Parton, who died in August at 80
• Raye, Sombr and Teddy Swims, in a tribute to George Michael

Nirvana receives the Video Vanguard Award, the VMAs’ career honor for music video work, officially named the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.

What is Taylor Swift getting at the VMAs?

Taylor Swift is the first recipient of a new award, the MTV VMA Artist Director Honors, a category created this year. Swift has directed many of her own videos since the 2010s.

She will also premiere the music video for “Patient Zero,” from The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, with Dakota Johnson and Colin Farrell in the cast.

Swift has nine nominations, second only to Madonna. Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter follow with seven each.

Who is nominated for Video of the Year?

• Ariana Grande, “hate that i made you love me”
• Bruno Mars, “I Just Might”
• Gener8ion, “STORM” starring Yung Lean
• Madonna, “Confessions II — The Film”
• Sabrina Carpenter, “Tears”
• Taylor Swift, “The Fate of Ophelia”

Artist of the Year puts Morgan Wallen alongside Grande, Mars, Madonna, Carpenter and Swift. Song of the Year includes Ella Langley, Olivia Dean, BTS and the Madonna and Carpenter duet.

Fan voting for most categories closed on Friday, Sept. 25. The one exception is Best New Artist, which stays open during the broadcast; the nominees are Bella Kay, Cortis, Magnus Ferrell, Malcolm Todd, Myles Smith, Sienna Spiro and Stella Lefty.

Carpenter is also on screen soon as Ginger Rogers in the Fred Astaire biopic with Tom Holland. Presenter Jeff Probst is back on Wednesdays with Survivor 51, and more awards and tour coverage is in Music, including Olivia Rodrigo’s Unraveled tour setlist.

— Bruno Monteiro

Sources: Paramount+ (date, time, venue, plans and on-demand availability); MTV (host, performers, presenters, nominations, Video Vanguard and Artist Director Honors, voting rules); CBS News and CBS New York (Sept. 2026). Performer and tribute lineup as compiled by Yahoo Entertainment (Danica Creahan); presenters and category lists by NBC Los Angeles (Julia Elbaba). Photos: CBS News and CBS New York.