VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown

Updated on Oct 25, 2023

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The 20 (previously known as the VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown) was a weekly television show that aired on the VH1 cable television network in the United States. The long-running series began in 1994 as the VH1 Top 10 Countdown, as part of VH1's "Music First" re-branding effort. Over the years a variety of hosts counted down the top ten or twenty music videos of the week. The order of countdown was originally decided by a mix of record sales, radio airplay, video spins, message board posts, and conventional mail. The series finale aired unexpectedly without any ceremony on November 28, 2015, with the last number one on the show belonging to Drake's "Hotline Bling".

History

As part of VH-1's re-branding as "VH1: Music First" in 1994, the channel launched a new series, the VH1 Top 10 Countdown, that counted down the top ten music videos played on VH1 each week. A combination of record sales, radio airplay, video spins, message board posts, and conventional mail would decide the order of the countdown. A rotating cast of VJs picked up hosting duties for the show over the years. The series expanded from ten to twenty music videos, becoming the VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown, in October 2000.

Each week, the show would broadcast from a different location around New York City, often at the Virgin Records store in Union Square. Following a decline in the show's relevance, popular Survivor contestant Jenna Lewis was hired to host the show in 2001. After her departure from the show, from 2002 to 2006, the show was usually hosted by either Rachel Perry, Bradford How, or Aamer Haleem, but occasionally another VJ would fill in.

The series became known as the VSPOT Top 20 Video Countdown on April 7, 2006, at which time it received a new on-air look, a new studio at the MTV headquarters in Times Square, and a new host, Matt Pinfield, the venerable VJ from MTV and MTV2 in the 1990s and former host of MTV's 120 Minutes. In a fundamental change from the show's classic format of compiling the top twenty videos of the week, Internet votes determined the entire order of the countdown. Fan participation was introduced via VSPOT, VH1's online music video outlet. Also as part of the change, VH1 temporarily moved the show's first airing of the week to Friday evenings instead of Saturday mornings. On the week of July 15, 2006, the show stopped airing on Friday evenings.

On the September 16, 2006, episode, Pinfield announced that after being on the countdown for 20 weeks, a video would be retired. Before this time, videos could remain on the countdown for as long as seemed appropriate, though almost all were gone by the 24th week. One notable exception, however, was Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know", which remained in the countdown for 28 non-consecutive weeks in two countdown runs. The video did not reach the top ten and its second wind was caused by the popularity of the VH1.com live version of the video.

After Pinfield did not show up for a few recordings of the show on October 7, 2006, former host Aamer Haleem returned to host the show once again. Beginning the week of February 17, 2007, after a mass layoff of music producers at MTV Networks, the show left the MTV studios and became broadcast from a different location every week, as it was in the late 1990s and early 2000s (decade), starting at New York's Grand Central Terminal. Haleem continued to host VH1 Top 20 every week from a different location until August 4, 2007, when he hosted his final episode.

Alison Becker became the new host on August 11, 2007. Around this time, the VSPOT online video center was renamed to "Video.VH1.com," so the series regained its classic title, VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown. Since then, each episode has usually featured one or two interviews with a celebrity or celebrities of current notoriety who either have a video, movie, or television show of interest at the time. The countdown sometimes has videos high in its countdown despite virtually no radio airplay for the song. One example is Bret Michaels Go That Far which was directed by Shane Stanley. This video spent twelve weeks on the countdown and bowed out at number seven. The video supported Michaels' show Rock of Love which is shown on the network.

David Cook and David Archuleta, the winner and runner-up of American Idol season 7 were the first guest stars to introduce their own music video at the #1 spot. David Archuleta introduced his video "Crush" on November 15, 2008. The following Countdown on November 22, 2008, Cook made a guest appearance to introduce his music video for "Light On" which was making its Countdown Debut at #1. Shinedown joined the group to introduce a song at #1 when their video for "Second Chance" was #1 on May 16, 2009. Introducing "Come Back To Me" at #1 on May 30, 2009, made David Cook the first to introduce two music videos at #1 on two different occasions. Later in 2009 Daughtry introduced their music video for "No Surprise" at #1 on July 18, 2009 and Jay Sean introduced his music video for "Down" at #1 on October 17, 2009. After four months of no one introducing their own video at #1, Adam Lambert would also join the group as he introduced his video, "Whataya Want from Me," at #1 on February 20, 2010. At VH1's Winter Wonderland Countdown Special, The Script introduced their video, Breakeven at #1 on March 6, 2010. For five months, no one had introduced their song at number one until August 21, 2010 where B.o.B introduced Airplanes at #1. Two months later, on October 9, Bruno Mars introduced his #1 single, "Just the Way You Are," at #1. Following a four- to five-month absence of an artist introduction at #1, on February 26, 2011, Adele introduced "Rolling in the Deep" at #1. On November 5, 2011, Kelly Clarkson introduced "Mr. Know It All" at #1 after a nine-month absence. On March 24, 2012, Neon Hitch introduced "Ass Back Home" at #1. Since then there has been no one else to introduce their own videos at #1 but it's likely there will be more by looking at past Countdowns where this has occurred.

Becker announced at the end of the January 3, 2009, broadcast that it would be her last show as host. The new host, Jim Shearer, taped his first show on January 5, 2009, at the Virgin Megastore at Union Square in New York, for broadcast on January 10. In 2009, VH1 took tighter control of the songs played on the show, with the number of videos available to be voted onto the Top 20 Countdown reduced to less than 30, and several videos removed from the voting list while they were still in the top half of the Countdown. There are also less rivalries regarding songs that try to earn a #1 spot due to the lack of a majority of song rivalries in 2009 and four consecutive brand new #1 videos in January 2010.

On September 18, 2010, the show had expanded from 2 hours to 2.5 hours, but returned to the previous two-hour format on February 11, 2012. On May 14, 2011, the show celebrated its 800th episode. This makes the countdown the longest-running music-related program on any channel, ever, in TV history. The countdown's 800th #1 video was "Rolling in the Deep" from Adele.

In the past you could choose up to twenty videos to vote for at one time by dragging a song into spaces that were numbered 1-20, and it was unlimited to how many times you could vote, but in mid 2011, the voting format changed. It was made to where you could only vote for one video at a time and votes were limited to twenty times per day. As of 2014, the show's voting was taken away. Jim Shearer hosted his last episode on December 13, 2014, since his contract was not renewed for 2015. From January 10, 2015, to April 25, 2015, musical artists and others guest hosted the show.

On April 12, 2015, Shannon Coffey was announced as the new host starting on May 2, 2015, keeping the same video countdown but introducing new segments and the show's name change to The 20.

On November 28, 2015, the final episode of "The 20" aired without ceremony, and the program was canceled without any publicity or statement as to why. An end of year special aired on December 15, 2015 in the same timeslot called the 2015 Year-End Special hosted by Coffey, but no video of the year was named, and it consisted of a countdown of 20 pop-culture moments instead of videos, and the start of 2016 saw Viacom completely phasing out all music videos from the VH1 schedule. Random films now air in the show's former timeslot.

Special editions

Occasionally, VH1 aired special editions of the Top 20 Video Countdown:

Fairway to Heaven: The show is condensed to 18 videos and takes place at a celebrity golf tournament. The title is a reference to the song "Stairway to Heaven."

Lift Ticket to Ride: An annual winter ski party event. The title is a reference to the song "Ticket to Ride."

VH1's Top 40 Videos of the Year: The year's best videos are counted down with commentary from celebrities. Prior to 2002, the special was a top 50 countdown, and was five hours long to allow most or all of each video to be played. From 2002-2011, the special was a top 40 countdown and resembled VH1's occasional "Top 100" countdowns. In 2012, the format of the year end show was changed again, to a top 20 countdown. The special is treated the same way as a weekly show would be shown. In 2013, the format changed again back to a top 40 countdown. In 2014, the year end countdown once again changed back to a top 20 format.

Rock Across America: Each summer through 2001, the show became a traveling event across the country.

The 20th Anniversary special aired on June 20, 2015. Starting with 1995, each year was represented with a video.

20/20 Club

The 20/20 Club is achieved when a video has been on the countdown for 20 consecutive weeks. On its 20th week, the host will say it's reached 20 weeks and this will be the last time it's shown on the countdown. As of 2013, the 20/20 Club has ended and videos can chart for as long as they are able to.