Show will air live from Los Angeles on Thursday, September 6, at 8 p.m. ET/PT. By James Montgomery The Staples Center, site of the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards Photo: Victor Decolongon/Getty Images The MTV Video Music Awards are moving to the home of the Lakers: Staples Center in Los Angeles. That’s right. On Thursday, September 6, at 8 p.m. ET/PT, the 2012 VMAs will take over Staples for the first time, making the big show even bigger — if that’s possible. The epicenter of the L.A. sports and entertainment universe is just the latest iconic venue the VMAs have called home, joining a list that includes New York’s Radio City Music Hall, the Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and American Airlines Arena in Miami. It’s fitting the 2012 VMAs are moving to Staples; after all, they’ll need a big house to match the big-time impact of last year’s show, which scored MTV’s biggest audience in the network’s history with a record-breaking 12.4 million viewers and were also the most tweeted-about awards show ever — no doubt fueled by Lady Gaga’s Jo Calderone and, of course, Beyonc
