MTV announced that Jack Black will host the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards airing live from New York's Radio City Music Hall on Thursday, August 31st at 8:00pm ET/PT. It was previously announced that Beyonce, Panic! at the Disco, T.I. The Killers, Ludacris, and Justin Timberlake are confirmed to perform at the star studded awards show. More performers and presenters will be announced shortly.

"My plan is to bring the thunder," said Black. "I've got my top men working on it as we speak in my thunder laboratory. Radio City Music Hall will never be the same."

Black and Kyle Gass together form Tenacious D, the self-proclaimed "Greatest Band on Earth." They are getting ready to release their first feature film, Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, for New Line Cinema on Friday, November 17th . The soundtrack will be released on Tuesday, November 14th on Epic Records. Tenacious D's first album, the self-titled Tenacious D, was released in 2001 and was certified Platinum in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Black most recently starred in the summer box office comedy hit Nacho Libre. Black has also starred in such films as King Kong, School of Rock, Shark Tale and High Fidelity.

The 2006 VMAs will be a multi-platform, multi-screen experience. For the first time ever in awards show history, MTV will expose fans to the insanity on and off the stage. While the VMAs are airing live on MTV, Overdrive, the network's broadband channel, will air "VMA Live: Backstage Uncensored," an unprecedented live view of the ALL the action behind the scenes and backstage viewers have never gotten to see. In addition to the television and broadband experiences, MTV Mobile on all wireless carriers will also offer updates and recaps of the VMAs within minutes. Also, prior to the show, viewers will have access to all nominated videos on MTV Overdrive (www.vma.mtv.com).

The 2006 MTV Video Music Awards will be available to a potential viewing audience of more than 1.3 billion people via MTV's global network of 50 channels reaching 481.5 million households around the world as well as through syndication. Its convergent and original online programming will reach the entire interactive community, via MTV's 44 Web sites around the world.