Viacom's Van Toffler Addresses Miley Cyrus VMA Backlash, Talks 'N Sync Reunion

Known for its surprises and frenetic energy, the VMAs stayed true to character, with moments such as Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke's risque team-up, Daft Punk's "unexpected" appearance and 'N Sync's historic reunion lighting up social media.
THR jumped on the phone with Toffler to talk about the Cyrus-Thicke backlash, when the 'N Sync reunion became a reality, the repercussions of Stephen Colbert's Daft Punk spoiler, a major stage mishap and the biggest disappointment of the night.
The Hollywood Reporter: A lot of people have been talking about Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke's racy performance. How did that come about? Was that something that came from their camps or was it something that you guys wanted to do?
Van Toffler: Well, really, both Robin and Miley have ginormous hits right now, so they were both natural for the show. We all saw that Miley actually covered "Blurred Lines" in her concerts and did a version of it, so we felt like why not have them play together as a transition from one to the other — as opposed to one performance, an award and then go to another [performance]. Just have them play off each other a little bit, and [then] Robin would go into his new song ["Give It 2 U"]. It seemed to work and create some buzz around each of them.
THR: How did the rehearsals differ from what we saw on the live show?
Toffler: Performers turn it up like athletes on game day. Did Miley do every move in rehearsal that she did the night of the show? No. We knew her performance was going to be provocative the way her video is. But on live TV, the performers turn it up a couple of notches. We didn't see Robin's costume or his suit before he got on[stage], but Miley definitely brought a different bit of energy to the live show. But clearly she's been making some provocative videos lately.
THR: Did you have any concerns heading into the performance? (The Parents Television Council criticized the Cyrus-Thicke performance, saying it "simply substituted talent with sex.")
Toffler: You have concerns always going into live television. I mean, this was our 30th one. We've had people climb onstage, we've had people interrupt winners and we've had people stage-dive when we've had pyro planned, so I think you've got to expect the unexpected. Not everything goes as planned. In fact, the stage actually broke a couple of hours before the performances so we weren't sure we could get the big bear on Miley's stage for the live show because of the step change. But we did. It was in a different position. We had to change a bunch of things leading up to it, but we knew it would be a memorable performance, just like Gaga's open and Justin Timberlake's medley.