Back in 1984 at the first Video Music Awards, MTV gave out its inaugural Video Vanguard prize (to David Bowie, The Beatles and "A Hard Day's Night" director Richard Lester), which recognizes major accomplishments in music and film.
In 1991, the music-focused channel renamed the prize the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award to honor the King of Pop, who received it himself in 1988.
But now, ahead of the 2019 MTV VMAs ceremony on Aug. 26, MTV has a big decision to make.
Page Six reports that in the wake of the March release of HBO and director Dan Reed's controversial and Emmy-nominated documentary "Leaving Neverland" — in which Wade Robson and James Safechuck detail allegations of childhood grooming and sexual abuse at the hands of the late music star, whose estate has denied their claims and sued HBO — MTV is debating whether or not it should drop Michael's name from the prestigious prize.
"There's a lot of heated discussion at the network about how to handle the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award this year, and it's getting ugly," a source told Page Six. "There's talk about if they should change the name, or get rid of it altogether. [There's also talk] about who would present it and who would accept it. It's a mess."
Since Video Vanguard Award don't have to be given out every year, MTV could chose to skip it in 2019. SO far, it seems that might be what's happening as the network released the names of the 2019 VMA nominees on July 23 — Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande lead the pack with 10 nods each, while Lil Nas X scored eight and Billie Eilish earned nine — and did not name a Video Vanguard recipient, though there is still, of course, time to do so before the show.
But even if the network — which did not comment after Page Six reached out — doesn't give out the prize this year (it did not award the prize in 1993, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007 through 2010 and 2012), it's likely the debate will remain.
"MTV [potentially] banning [Michael's] name is the latest fallout [from the documentary release]," adds the source. "They haven't decided yet, but they've been going back and forth on it. There are a lot of issues."