Snoop Dogg is taking over the VMAs from the host position.
CBS and MTV announced that Snoop will host the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, September 27, live from Los Angeles. The ceremony airs from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. ET on CBS, simulcasts on MTV and streams on Paramount+ Premium in the U.S.
It is also the VMAs’ first West Coast show since 2017.
Snoop has been part of VMA history for more than 30 years
The host role puts Snoop at the center of a show he has been appearing on since the 1990s.
According to CBS and MTV, he is a 13-time VMA nominee and three-time winner. His first main-stage VMA performance came in 1994.
He later closed the 1999 show with Dr. Dre and Eminem, took part in a 2005 tribute to The Notorious B.I.G. and returned with Eminem for a 2022 performance built around the Otherside metaverse.
That history is part of why the hosting assignment lands differently from a celebrity simply being added to an awards show lineup.
Snoop called the return a “full-circle moment” in the announcement.
The VMAs are going back to Los Angeles
The 2026 ceremony will come from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
CBS and MTV say it is the first time the show has returned to the West Coast since 2017. Performers, presenters and additional guests are still being announced.
Nirvana has already been named this year’s Video Vanguard Award recipient.
Snoop’s role is bigger than a one-night cameo
The official production credits also list Snoop as an executive producer on the show.
That means he is not only being placed onstage to move the broadcast from segment to segment. He is attached to the production itself alongside the team behind the ceremony.
For a rapper whose career has moved through music, television, sports, brand work and live entertainment, that is another example of how long his public life has extended beyond records alone.
On September 27, that run comes back to one of the platforms that helped put hip-hop in front of a national television audience in the 1990s.
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