That promo she did was planned for months so it's not like she could just Stop it ...... She does it because she does not like leaks simple

Well, for one, Bey retains as much control as possible until she's ready to present whatever she has going on and that has worked well for her on multiple levels. With something like a televised live performance, it gives her the benefit of being able to perform with minimal expectations from the audience which is a rare thing in the social media age. In not having an official announcement, the click-baiting "insiders" were satisfied with having the speculation about her performing being tea enough and didn't probe much further beyond that, so people weren't really leaking details of the performance itself and letting social media followers work rumors up to the point of thinking she was supposed to get on stage and cure cancer before she could even sing one note. No, it didn't benefit MTV (with the exception of increased post-show and social buzz/performance streams), but it gave Bey a definite upper hand.

This so much! Which is why I don't understand why they would leak info to TBHT and have them hype the hell out of her performance, especially considering how unprofessional they are.

Surprises are exciting. I'm fine it with being a supposed gimmick, it works well for her and her image.

Good thing that they didn't do that. It's boring too see her perform every year or every two years.

Wow, shocking, who would have thought?

But the 2014 MTVs saw a significant drop in ratings from the year prior and we all know who got the Vanguard Award that year

They're doing the most trying to save face now that their ratings are going down the drain.

What does Britney have to do with anything? I'm sure you said this to try to be edgy and get "" or and it failed.

She's the boss.

Hell, who DID they announce beforehand besides Britney and Rihanna???

lol no it didn't. The 2013 show had a 10.1 rating and the 2014 show logged an 8.3 rating from MTV with additional viewership from other channels it was simultaneously televised on bringing the total to 10.1 million. The exact same rating.

The shows viewership goes up and down every year depending on a number of factors, not any one artist. One of those factors is Viacom simulcasting the show in the last 3 years (affecting the main channel's ratings) and another factor is if there's a scandal happening or not. Also, the amount of A List performers can affect it.

This year's show was scandal free and didn't have many A Listers performing. They also were a bit disorganized: most of the performers weren't announced beforehand and the hosts weren't either. I heard it streamed okay though.

Every single performer besides bey. Duh.