The 2006 MTV Video Music Awards aired live on August 31, 2006, honoring the best music videos from July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006. The show was hosted by Jack Black at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

The 2006 Video Music Awards mark the first time viewers are able to vote for all performers' categories (Best Video; Best Male, Female, and Group Videos; and genre categories). Like previous years, the artistic categories (Best Direction, Best Cinematography, etc.) are still chosen by music industry professionals. The 2006 Awards are also the first in over 15 years without the category of Breakthrough Video, widely considered to be the most prestigious artistic award.

The show suffered massive negative criticisms from fans and viewers citing the show is lacking and uninteresting. Other reason is the expansion of Online broadcasting. The award ceremony's ratings were down 28% from the 8 million viewers it averaged in 2005 and 45 % down from 2004 when they had almost double the amount of viewers with 10.3 million.