The annual MTV Video Music Awards, one of the music industry's top televised showcases, will return to Los Angeles this summer from New York City, the U.S. cable channel said on Wednesday. The show, popular among MTV's young viewers prized by advertisers, will take place on August 24, the day before TV's Emmy Awards, at the Forum in Inglewood, California, about eight miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles. The Video Music Awards, which hand out "Moonman" statuettes of an astronaut planting an MTV flag, can be crucial exposure for singers and bands and is best known for its unscripted and often provocative moments. And just as last year's show helped unveil the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, this year's show will also help relaunch Madison Square Garden Co's recently renovated Forum, an arena which had been bypassed by major events since the Staples Center opened in downtown Los Angeles in 1998.