Last year, with Chelsea Handler on board, the MTV Video Music Awards notched their best ratings since 2002. This past weekend, with no one hosting, the show recorded its best ratings ever.

So let’s perhaps forget the notion of Ben Stiller for the Oscars or the idea of a second encore for Ricky Gervais with the Globes. At this fractured, social media-driven juncture, when everyone on Twitter is a wise-cracking comedian, the best option may well be to dispense with the idea of awards show hosts altogether.

Preliminary ratings for the 2011 VMAs reconfirm that viewers don’t need a host to enjoy the outfits, celebs, speeches and performances. While journalists and awards watchers get all worked up each year about who hosts what, that 18-to-34 demo that the Academy has so desperately been chasing doesn’t seem to really care.

If Brett Ratner and Don Mischner are given a mandate to jazz up the 2011 Oscars broadcast without the encumbrance of a host, perhaps something new and fresh is truly within reach. The Globes meanwhile are already the VMAs of the film awards circuit, so reclaiming their past model of a sans-host show would be obviously even more painless.

Previously on FishbowlLA:
Oscar Watcher Predicts: Ben Stiller Will Host Next Show
Say What!? Ricky Gervais Claims Golden Globes Want Him Back as Host