Here's why no celebrities showed up to the MTV Movie and TV Awards this year

If you're an avid awards show watcher, you may have noticed that this year the MTV Movie & TV Awards red carpet is eerily empty. That's because there was no live awards ceremony this year nor was there a red carpet.

Due to the Writer's Guild of America strike which is currently taking place, the MTV Movie & TV Awards pivoted from a live ceremony to a pre-taped show that aired on Sunday US time.

Changes to the show were announced Friday hours after the Writers Guild of America (WGA) said it had planned to picket outside of the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, where the award show was set to take place live in front of an audience. 

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The WGA has since cancelled its intentions to demonstrate. In response to this, Bruce Gillmer, executive producer of the MTV Movie & TV Awards, said in a statement:

"As we carefully navigate how best to deliver the fan first awards' show we envisioned that our team has worked so hard to create, we're pivoting away from a live event that still enables us to produce a memorable night full of exclusive sneak peeks, irreverent categories our audience has come to expect and countless moments that will both surprise and delight as we honor the best of film and TV over the past year."

Though the ceremony will not be taking place live as originally planned, celebrity winners have pre-recorded acceptance speeches for the awards they have won.

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Jennifer Coolidge won the special Comedic Genius award for her role in White Lotus and during her pre-recorded acceptance speech she showed her solidarity with the writers who are currently on strike.

"Almost all great comedy starts with great writers and I just think that as a proud member of SAG (the Screen Actors Guild), I stand here before you tonight side-by-side with my sisters and brothers from the WGA that are fighting right now, fighting for the rights of artists everywhere," Coolidge said.

She went to quote William Shakespeare, saying, "the play is the thing."

Watch the clip above.

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The ceremony was also set to include Drew Barrymore as the show's host but the 50 First Dates actress announced earlier in the week that she would not be hosting in solidarity with the WGA strike. Just before this announcement, MTV had called off the red carpet for the event.

Writers across Los Angeles and New York are currently on strike after an ongoing dispute between WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) failed to reach an agreement surrounding fairer pay.

Shows such as Saturday Night Live, Evil, House of the Dragon, Big Mouth, Stranger Things and a variety of late night shows will go dark as their writers form picket lines to protest.