The seams were showing at times at the first TikTok Awards held Thursday night the Hollywood Palladium and live streaming on TikTok and Tubi.
The show got started almost an hour late because the LED screens on the Palladium’s stage malfunctioned. Presenters and winners soldiered on bravely with a traditional award presentation that felt awkward for the lack of video clips to demonstrate the nominees’ work, although audio of each clip did run. The video clips did run without interruption on the live stream.
The awards are hosted by La La Anthony. A host of prominent TikTok personalities are participating as presenters and nominees. Popular TikTok-er Ashby made a guest appearance, coming out with “K-pop Demon Hunters” voice star Rei Ami to shoot off a “Labubu cannon” out into the seated crowd on the floor of the legendary Sunset Boulevard venue.
“I hope you signed your waivers,” Ashby said as she fired off the Labubus.
Among the winners were Paris Hilton for Muse of the Year. Hilton was on hand to accept the trophy in the shape of the TikTok logo. She thanked “all my little Hiltons.”
Hilton assured the crowd of colorfully dressed creators and influencers, “You don’t need permission to be iconic. Just show up, sparkle hard and don’t forget that everyone is a princess.”
An hour into to the presentation, the large video screen briefly popped back to life with a video image of the TikTok Awards logo set to the soundtrack of the Coldplay song “Yellow.” But it still could not play clips of nominees.
The crowd was undaunted by the technical snafu. Cheers and shouts were strong from the various cheering sections for nominees.
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