10 things you didn't see on TV at the 2024 MTV VMAs: Fans hit record on Chappell Roan, Katy Perry's 'I Kissed a Girl' makes the crowd go wild

The MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) often feel more like a concert with a few trophies thrown in than a traditional awards show, and that energy makes for nonstop fun inside the venue. I know that firsthand — I reported from inside UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y., on Wednesday night.

Here are 10 things you didn’t see on TV.

It wasn’t just Taylor Swift dancing to Katy Perry — the whole crowd was on their feet singing along

Katy Perry received the Video Vanguard Award, an honor given to artists who have made a significant impact on music videos and popular culture.

Before her partner Orlando Bloom handed her the trophy, Perry performed a medley of her songs over the years, from “Teenage Dream” to her new collaboration with Doechii, “I’m His, He’s Mine,” which hasn’t even been released yet.

The crowd went wild for Perry’s acrobatics during “Dark Horse” and “E.T.,” but their participation was so profound during “I Kissed a Girl” that it felt like being transported back in time to 2008. Viewers at home saw several shots of Taylor Swift dancing to her former rival’s greatest hits, but the energy in the building was unmatched.

Chappell Roan’s performance was the most recorded

If Perry’s medley had the most audience participation, Roan’s medieval knight-inspired performance of “Good Luck, Babe!” had the most phones in the air recording her every move.

Roan has been having a breakout moment this year. Her ability to draw a crowd and create viral performances with unique costumes and strong live vocals was fully on display as she took one of her biggest stages yet. It felt like everyone in the room anticipated that they were part of something remarkable.

An honorable mention goes to Sabrina Carpenter, whose cheeky performance involved a love triangle between her, a Moon Person and an alien. She commanded the audience’s attention like we were all there just for her.

The production values can’t be overstated

You saw the amazing stages at home, but in person, they were unbelievable. One of my favorite parts of the production was the wristbands that audience members were given, which lit up with colors to match the various different performances. We didn’t have any control over when they went off, so it was always a surprise to see the color of the whole venue change unexpectedly.

What was projected on the giant 62-foot Moon Person’s helmet also frequently changed — from various different colored MTV logos to Megan Thee Stallion’s face.

There was so much misdirection and sleight of hand at play, it felt like a magic show. The moment one performance would end on the left side of the theater, a performance would begin on the right, distracting us from cleanup. Even during commercial breaks, there was a lot going on behind curtains and in darkened corners.

Stars can spend a long time waiting to perform

While the production team was getting those intricate sets ready for their moment, artists often took their positions early and held them silently in the darkness.

Carpenter sat on a swing hanging high above the stage for several minutes before her performance, including through a brief introduction from Cyndi Lauper. (They also both gleefully said the word “motherf***er” — Lauper in her remarks and Carpenter as part of a lyric in her song “Please Please Please” — which was censored for TV.)

Doechii and LL Cool J also quietly held their positions, obscured in darkness, while waiting for their cues. In LL Cool J’s case, that involved keeping his head down while surrounded by audience members wearing their own versions of his signature bucket hat. I also spotted LISA’s background dancers practicing their intricate chair choreography before she brought the house down performing “Rockstar.”

On-screen clapping is an art form that needs to be taught

Before the show began, an emcee came out on stage to teach everyone on the floor how to be the best possible audience member for TV. One of the points he emphasized was clapping with your hands over your head, which looks a lot better on camera than typical, chest-level clapping.

If you caught audience members doing more unconventional choreography — swaying or raising their hands in the air, for example — it’s because they were prompted to do so by someone on the ground.

Having a floor seat at the VMAs is exhausting. Even when someone near you isn’t performing, you have to be as high-energy as possible just in case the camera pans to you, and you have to keep that up for the full three-plus hours of the show.

Now that you know the extremely physical demands of being an on-screen audience member, you might be wondering who would have it in them to stick it out for all those performances — and the answer is fans. They were extremely vocal about the celebrities taking the stage, as well as the ones walking by on the way to their front-row seats.

Often, the screams of fans would give away which celebrity was queuing up to go on camera, and reveal which artist was the frontrunner for certain audience-voted awards. Swifties were by far the most vocal fandom.

Shawn Mendes was obscured by the fog machine

Immediately after LISA’s “Rockstar” performance, Mendes sang his new single “Nobody Knows” on the opposite side of the arena with a guitar. It was an intimate rendition — perhaps too intimate, though, because his fog machine completely hid him from the crowd. He sounded great, though!

The performances that involved fire made the building physically hot

It’s not unusual for the VMAs stage to have a lot of pyrotechnics going on, but I had no idea just how hot they’d make the arena. I seriously started sweating during Lenny Kravitz’s performance, and it happened again when GloRilla brought the (literal) heat to the stage.

The show’s audio plays live in the bathrooms

Audience members can’t just walk in and out of the stage area during the show and folks were lined up outside the doors until a commercial break — but did you know that audio from the show plays live in the bathrooms? I had to duck out during Halsey’s performance, but I didn’t miss a moment of her amazing vocals.

Megan Thee Stallion’s jokes weren’t landing — her looks and performances were, though

The rapper didn’t get a lot of laughter from the in-person audience, unfortunately, but that might have been because it was a little hard to hear her. The crowd was definitely full of fans, though, because every time she would take the stage in a new outfit, they went wild before the lights even went up. Her performance of songs like “BOA,” “HISS” and “Mamushi” had everyone on their feet.

It looked like Swift had left the building

After she won several awards, it became hard to spot Swift, who had been front and center for many performances. Many of the biggest stars of the night were seated together.

As the final award for Video of the Year was about to be announced, there was a lot of audience chatter about where she had gone and whether she had taken her spoils and headed home.

Moments before her biggest win of the night, she reappeared — suggesting to the audience that she might have known an acceptance speech was coming. It was hard to hear her in the theater because her fans were just so enthusiastic — especially through the part where she thanked her “boyfriend, Travis.”