Playboy TV is set to air the world premiere of the 2006 AVN Awards Show this Friday. The statuettes were originally handed out on January 7 in the spacious Grand Ballroom at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. The show looks to capture the sights and excitement of the evening at the 23rd annual ceremony.
It premieres at 9:30 p.m. ET/10:30 p.m. PT with the AVN Red Carpet show preceding it at 9 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PT.
“It’s exciting to have the awards show on the Playboy Channel, because the people at Playboy share our vision about what the awards show should be,” said AVN president Paul Fishbein.
The AVN Awards, held annually in conjunction with the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo at the Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas, are a sprawling display of the past year’s shining contributions to adult entertainment.
The 2006 Awards were produced by AVN veteran Gary Miller, and smoothly helmed by co-hosts Jesse Jane and comedian Greg Fitzsimmons. Fitzsimmons on Wednesday went on the “Howard Stern Show” to promote the release.
“Jesse was an incredible host, and so was Greg. Jesse is just gorgeous…she’s a star,” said Dan Smith, vice president of production at Playboy TV.
A slick montage from Best Video and Film nominees certainly got the show off to a visually-stimulating start, and then the onslaught of on-stage eye candy kept the audience captivated.
“All of Playboy’s expertise helped Gary take the show to the next level and you can see that when you watch the video,” Fishbein continued. “The show is faster moving, more exciting and the clips are exceptional.”
Dozens of beautiful presenters: Jenna Jameson, Sunny Leone, Tory Lane, Belladonna, Valentina Vaughn, jessica drake and Alana Evans, to mention just a few, handed out a bevy of AVN Awards for everything from Best Video Feature to Best All-Girl Sex Scene, all the while with musical accompaniment by Mark Stone and the AVN Orchestra.
The night went off without a hitch, except for the occasional planned surprise, like Lexington Steele proposing to Vanessa Blue during their presentation for the Best Actor – Film Award.
“This was truly the best show we’ve ever had,” said the producer Miller. “It moved along with a great pace, and we did some different things this year. Basically, we really stepped it up a notch, like we do every year.”
The evening’s proceedings included several special presentations and appearances. Fishbein introduced a new category, the AVN Hall of Fame – Founders Branch, in which Larry Flynt, Norman Arno and Noel Bloom were inducted, and Rob Black accepted the Reuben Sturman Memorial Award for his long-standing First Amendment battle.
This year, for the first time, the names of five of the nominees were pre-recorded and introduced with video clips. Additionally, Mark Stone captured some comic video clips, shown at intervals throughout the evening (the most memorable of them being “Bareback Mountain.”).
Rapper DJ Quik and rock band Hedley performed for the sold-out crowd of 4,000 spectators.
“The production values for this year’s AVN Awards were as good as any awards show,” said Smith. “We loved working with Gary and Paul and the whole team at AVN.”
The biggest overall winner at the Awards was Evil Angel, nabbing a grand total of 14 statuettes, while Vivid (with 12), Digital Playground/Adam & Eve and their big-budget title Pirates (with 11), Red Light District (with 10), Wicked Pictures (with 7) and Pure Play Media (with 6) all went home with their hands full of AVN accolades.
“Playboy ‘gets it,’” explained Fishbein, “and their participation helps make the AVN Awards the premier adult event of the year.”
Pictured: Jesse Jane and Jenna Jameson.
