Twenty years later, the Teen Choice Awards are still going strong - the annual Fox spectacle has been around since 1999, when the first performers were 'N Sync, Gloria Estefan, Britney Spears and what one newspaper hilariously called "Blind 1982."
Anyway, the two-hour telecast Sunday night featured A-listers, YouTubers and A-list YouTubers, along with quite a few stars who hover somewhere in between. "Avengers: Endgame," "Aladdin," "Riverdale" and K-pop supergroup BTS tied for four wins each. And as usual, there was some possible drama.
Here are seven highlights from the show.
1) The show was basically dedicated to the Jonas Brothers.
The Jonas Brothers on the Teen Choice Award’s 🌟 pic.twitter.com/1V9nX7qBdt
— baby⁷✨ (@jbangteez) August 12, 2019
The JoBros are back, if you somehow missed that fact, and they received an extraordinary amount of airtime. The sibling trio of Joe, Kevin and Nick received the Decade Award, and leading up to the trophy/surfboard presentation, they appeared in pre-taped segments to talk about their journey, including how they broke up ("Family's complicated") and got back together this year for a new album, "Happiness Begins."
During their acceptance speech, they shared emotional stories about how they were bullied in school (Nick, because his teachers were resentful he was on Broadway; Kevin, because of his hair) and urged fans not to let similar troubles derail them. "Those things that you feel like you were singled out about, you were bullied about, that defined you in your teen years, can become the thing that make you special," Nick said. "It's your gift, it's your power."
2) Blanco Brown was declared "single-handedly responsible for the song of the summer that sparked a worldwide dance craze."
Definitely stating the song of the summer can be controversial. But the Teen Choice Awards weren't afraid to make the declaration as Blanco Brown performed "The Git Up," the country-trap earworm that has been steadily climbing the Billboard Hot 100 and has been at the top of the Hot Country Songs chart (measuring sales, streaming and radio airplay) for a month.
3) Monsta X made its U.S. award show debut.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/OfficialMonstaX?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@OfficialMonstaXbringing the heat to #TeenChoice! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/rn1imsR7Yj
— Teen Choice Awards (@TeenChoiceFOX)
The K-pop superstars ended their first American arena tour in Los Angeles on Saturday and then headed down to Hermosa Beach to perform at the TCAs - much to the delight of their fans, who kept the group trending in the days leading up to the TCAs.
Many noticed that the group only had six members instead of seven, given that Kihyun recently suffered a fractured rib and was forced to miss the show. That did not deter the crowd, which released ear-shattering screams through much of the performance of "Who Do U Love."
4) Taylor Swift urged equal pay for the U.S. women's national soccer team.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/taylorswift13?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@taylorswift13for her #TeenChoice Icon Award! pic.twitter.com/HOeQdGFRqM
— Teen Choice Awards (@TeenChoiceFOX)
World Cup champion Alex Morgan presented the newly-created Icon Award to Taylor Swift, and the pop megastar used to the first minute of her acceptance speech to put the focus on the team's much-discussed gender discrimination lawsuit.
"While they were winning the World Cup, they were also taking a historic stand in terms of gender equality, gender pay gaps. Please, please, please support her and her teammates because this is not over yet," Swift said. "Get online, talk about it, let people know how you feel about it, because what happened to them is unfair. It's happening everywhere, and they are heroes and icons for standing up."
Swift, as is her tradition, also offered life advice to fans: "If you're out there and you're being really hard on yourself right now for something that's happened or messing up or feeling embarrassed, it's normal. ... We live in a crazy world and we're living in an insane time. Please be kind to yourselves." Then she plugged her upcoming album, "Lover."
5) Ken Jeong may now be in a feud with YouTuber Tana Mongeau.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/JakePaul?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#JakePauland #TanaMongeau got roasted at the #TeenChoiceAwards by #KenJeong pic.twitter.com/UvHIaaNsoJ
— TWW (@itstww)
Ken Jeong first appeared to accept the choice movie comedy prize on behalf of his "Crazy Rich Asians" co-stars. "Representation matters! Diversity is what makes America great," he told the cheering audience. "It is important for us to see people who look like us onscreen."
Then, because it wouldn't be the Teen Choice Awards without some possible drama, he segued into a bit to promote "The Masked Singer" (where he's a judge) and pretended to reveal that YouTube star Jake Paul was under one of the masks. "That could stress out his pretend marriage, leading to a fake divorce from his not-wife. Kids, am I right? Tana Mongeau?" Jeong asked.
The teens in the crowd were visibly not amused with this reference to the wedding spectacle between Paul and Mongeau, who are indeed not legally married. Mongeau also had some thoughts:
6) Sarah Hyland can sing.
undefinedSearches for "Sarah Hyland is a singer??" likely spiked on Google on Sunday, as the "Modern Family" star took the stage with Jordan McGraw (son of Dr. Phil McGraw) to perform their duet "We Met at a Party," which basically just repeats the phrase "we met at a party" over and over.
And yes, Hyland can sing! If you don't believe us, we will direct you to this helpful article titled "Actress Sarah Hyland Is Actually A Crazy Good Singer."
7) Three YouTubers teamed up for "California Gurls."
Johnny Orlando, Hayden Summerall and Jacob Sartorius hyped a very special collaboration, which turned out to be a cover of Katy Perry's hit "California Gurls." While the TV audience seemed to gamely sing along, the reception was not so kind on social media, if the replies to this tweet are any indication.
The Washington Post