What Would MTV Do Without Miley Cyrus?

MTV reported huge ratings for the European Music Awards on Sunday: 1.2 million people in the United States tuned in to watch the awards show. According to the network, the show got huge buzz on social media and on MTV's website. But can anyone take a guess as to why that would be? Anyone?

With all of MTV's numbers-boasting, there's no mention of the scandal that made people tune in: Miley Cyrus lighting up a joint during her acceptance speech during the EMAs.

A Miley Cyrus scandal bringing in huge ratings for MTV? That sounds awfully familiar...mostly because it already happened this summer when Cyrus did the twerk seen 'round the world at the Video Music Awards.

C'mon MTV, don't play us. You already make tons of money off of wild teens and immature twentysomethings on 16 and Pregnant, Catfish, Teen Mom, The Real World, and whatever show Snooki is on at the moment. No one is going to go, "Oh, MTV had great ratings for the EMAs? I bet they had some real quality programming!" Just address the damn elephant in the room already: no one cared about the EMAs until they heard Miley Cyrus was smoking weed live on television.

Of course, thanks to the pearl-clutchers at the Parents Television Council, that wasn't entirely true. MTV heavily edited out Cyrus lighting a joint on stage for their East Coast broadcast, to the relief of helicopter parents everywhere (but also, the Internet still exists, y'all. It will take exactly 30 seconds for your 13-year-old to find a clip of Miley Cyrus lighting one up). But even still: millions of people tuned in in the hopes of seeing Hannah Montana get wild yet again.

Between this, the VMAs, and Miley: The Cult of Satan (or as most know it, Miley: The Movement), MTV has been all Miley, all the time. With all the ratings-boosting that the pop star has done for them, the least the network can do is give her a little credit. After all, twerking, drinking, partying, smoking weed, not wearing pants, and rapping terribly isn't an easy job — it's tough just bein' Miley.