This Friday, the majority of Viacom employees put on their out-of-office autoreplies, made their way to a community service project of choice, and rolled up their sleeves to do something good – as is tradition on Viacommunity Day, our company-wide day to give back. All around the world, droves of Viacom employees dispersed across hundreds of volunteer sites — another year of record numbers, as participation steadily grows.  This year, employees worked on everything from packing goody bags for Boston First Responders, to rebuilding sites still devastated from Hurricane Sandy, and conducting mock interviews for the unemployed in need of such training.

In honor of Viacom’s service on Viacommunity Day, Viacom President and Chief Executive Officer Philippe Dauman and a group of employees rang the NASDAQ opening bell Monday morning. Following the bell ringing, I sat down with Dauman to hear his take on the Company’s corporate conscience and why this day of service is so important. Here’s what he had to say.

Was this your first time ringing the bell at the NASDAQ?

PD: Yes, it was. I’d rung the bell at the NYSE when we were listed there. And Viacom has rung the bell before, but this is the first time I’ve done it, and I am really thrilled to do it in connection with Viacommunity Day. We decided since we were going to ring the bell for Viacommunity Day, we were going to also bring people that worked for various organizations on Friday. We put out a note saying “first come, first serve” to come to the bell ringing, and we had the 40-or-so quota filled almost instantly. I talked to one of our people at the NASDAQ bell ringing and he said, “I jumped on it right away to make sure I got in there.” It was fun. Everybody was on the big billboards in Times Square, so we were all looking up at that.

What did you do for Viacommunity Day this year?

PD: Every year, I go around to various sites that we have people working on. I try to check out different organizations in the mix every year. This year I visited an animal rescue center, God’s Love We Deliver, an outdoor event in Times Square held for Second Chance Toys, and Gay Men’s Health Crisis.

Over the years, I’ve personally come to discover a lot of worthy causes that we are involved with and it’s always so invigorating to see our people’s enthusiasm. At many organizations, we have employees who are very actively involved and sponsored the project. The one aspect of Viacommunity Day that I’d love for more people to appreciate is that all these organizations, for the most part, were brought to our attention by the people who work here and get added to our list. If anyone at Viacom is involved with an organization, I urge them to suggest them for the day. The reason I do is that it’s a way for other employees to discover those organizations and get involved year-round. Because that’s really the objective – to get people involved not just for the day, but to get involved either in the particular organization or more generally on a year-round basis.

Why is it so important that we take part in Viacommunity Day every year?

PD: We see every day that there are a lot of problems that need to be addressed in society – from education to health issues to voting and hunger – the world, as we saw unfortunately last week, needs a lot of improvement. There are all sorts of worthy causes. Our veterans are coming out of the military service without jobs. Spike and its employees work on that cause. If we don’t get engaged as human beings, nothing’s going to improve. Our job as a company is to really expose our employees to organizations that come to our attention.

What are you most proud of this year?

I’m very proud of the fact that, once again, for several years in a row, we set record participation levels. More than 5,000 people participated in Viacommunity Day on a global basis. When you consider that we have 10,000 employees in the whole world including all our international locations, and we have a lot of employees who have to be at the office because we have to have our networks up and running — this new record is a testament to how involved our people are in their communities and how much they want to get involved. I’ve noticed over the years that we have a more and more engaged population – I think it has to do with a lot of the young people coming into the company. This is a generation that wants to be more engaged, and it fits right into our culture here. So I’m very gratified. And it’s not just in the U.S. – we had perfect attendance in Amsterdam, for example.

How would you say Viacommunity Day reflects our overall business or overall commitment to giving back?

PD: We have a special responsibility as a media company to address our audiences in a way that reflects our lives, and we have a responsibility to improve people’s lives and to improve the world community. We have a megaphone. So in order for us to be credible in doing that, we should also be engaged in our own personal lives. Viacom’s been recognized as one of the top 50 pro-social companies out there – I think we rank very high in that top 50, my personal opinion. That’s why we have so many programs here – we have mentoring programs that we put in place a few years ago – and opportunities to engage. We reflect that on our air and in personal lives and work lives. And that’s how it should be.

Right – and this week, Viacom launched a volunteer match program, for employees to find volunteer projects in their areas at any time.

As a company, we get more opportunities presented to us. People come to us and would like us to be involved, so we make those organizations available to our employees. We don’t require people to do anything; we just make it available and then it’s up to people to follow their own consciences. And in following their own consciences, they’ve been very socially responsible. I’m very proud of our employees, of the level of participation, and we should all be proud of what all of us collectively are doing. It makes a difference, and the combination of all our individual efforts are making it such that Viacom is making a difference. And that makes me very glad.

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Viacom’s year-long commitment to giving back culminates each year in Viacommunity Day, the Company’s annual day of volunteer service, during which we put on our out-of-office autoreplies, make our way to a volunteer project of our choice, and roll up our sleeves to do something good.

All around the world this past Friday, droves of Viacom employees dispersed across hundreds of volunteer sites — another year of record numbers, as participation steadily grows.  This year, employees worked on everything from packing goody bags for Boston first responders, to rebuilding sites still devastated from Hurricane Sandy, and conducting mock interviews for the unemployed in need of such training.

Beyond making a difference through our collective efforts, the objective of the day is to inspire employees to get involved either with that organization or in community more generally, year-round. It also reaffirms the ongoing relationships we have with many of the participating organizations.

Flip through the slideshow above for some of the day’s highlights, #nofilter, then check out some of our favorite #VDAY2013 Instagrams, featured below.  Shout out to the employee with crazy good nail art skills!

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This ruling ignores the opinions of the higher courts and completely disregards the rights of creative artists.  We continue to believe that a jury should weigh the facts of this case and the overwhelming evidence that YouTube willfully infringed on our rights, and we intend to appeal the decision.

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From Will Ferrell accepting the Comedic Genius Award to Ted vs Channing Tatum for Best Shirtless Performance, Hollywood will be convening for a can’t-miss show this Sunday, April 14, at the MTV Movie Awards. With talent ranging from host Rebel Wilson to Brad Pitt (presenting movie of the year!), plus comedians like Seth Rogen and Melissa McCarthy, the awards show promises to be “epic.” Ahead of the show this weekend, MTV Movie Awards EP Jesse Ignjatovic walked us through some of its big moments, as well as the overall creative vision for this year’s show, which he describes as “big and blockbuster.”

Can you tell me a bit about your creative vision for the show?

JI: This year we moved the show up from the first week of June to first week of April to get ahead of summer movie season. The Movie Awards – unlike a lot of other awards show – is about what’s coming as much as it’s about the previous year. Getting ahead of films like Fast and Furious and Iron Man to get excited about what’s coming next influenced the creative.

We wanted to give the show a blockbuster feel. Everything you watch will be “epic” – everything is going to have scale. We’re building big excitement around every moment and every film.

Each show, you put together these very elaborate spectacle presentations (such as last year’s Prometheus or this year’s Star Trek Into Darkness scenic). Can you tell me a little about how that will play out this year?

JI: We create a visual moment tied to a moment from the film – we take a visual moment from the film to the turbine stage, a big open stage where we can create any sort of scenic. For the Star Trek presentation, the cast will come through the rubble. We partner with the movie studios in terms of accessing the visuals we want to use, but on our side we create the scenic. This year we’ll have Fast & Furious, Star Trek Into Darkness and an epic intro for Catching Fire.

How do you tailor the show to the host?

What’s great is that we went to Rebel [Wilson] early, at the end of last year – we had our approach in terms of creative for this year’s. We’re like minds and she really grabbed onto it and took into her amazing comedic direction. The second you tune in, you see how she’s made her mark. She’s taken it to another level, especially with a big opening number which is so exciting for us. But she really keeps her foot to the pedal throughout, with lots of great comedic moments. She’s the perfect heroine for the show.

What’s the difference in production for MTV’s Video Music Awards versus the Movie Awards?

One’s tied to music, and one’s tied to film, so you get a special opportunity to work closely with a lot of that movie talent. A lot our comedic moments or on-stage moments are tied to talent having ideas. It’s fun to conceptualize those ideas and what those can be.

For the VMAs, we have to think about how we are going to stage an amazing performance – we put on 8-10 big numbers. For this show, we have two musical performances and the opportunity to create big, watercooler moments on stage. It’s a different beast, similar though in terms of production value and thought.

As for the musical performances we’ll have: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis are a big energetic artist and their single is an anthem, so I think they fit perfectly into what we’re doing with the blockbuster theme. They also get the whole room involved. Macklemore has an energy that comes forward. We haven’t seen them in a big scale performance yet so we’re excited to do that.

And Selena Gomez was an obvious choice – tied to film, a huge artist, and also tied to Spring Breakers. We’ll have her performing her new single on the stage for the first time – and of course our audience loves her.

Increasingly, there’s a pressure to bring “funny” to the show – do you feel that pressure?

The Movie Awards have always had that irreverent comedic angle, so I think the pressure is the drive to live up to that and surpass it however possible. This year with the host we have in Rebel, I feel like it’s going to feel like those historic awards shows. Can we bring those moments so that people are talking about it throughout the show and afterward? I think we have the opportunity to have that kind of show.

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Here’s a quick Friday treat courtesy of VH1′s Big Morning Buzz Live and British artist Jessie Ware, a VH1 “You Oughta Know” artist as well as one of MTV’s 2013 Artists to Watch. Watch/listen to the alt-R&B singer perform “Wildest Moments” above.

Her voice is so deep and soulful that it mesmerizes whether completely stripped down or remixed (which rapper A$AP Rocky did to her single “Wildest Moments” just this week). Looking forward to the U.S. release of her album, Devotion, which lands here April 16. In the meantime, MTV will be streaming her “Artist To Watch Live” concert at Webster Hall tonight at 9 p.m.

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See above — MTV has paved the road to the 2013 Video Music Awards! The 30th iteration of the VMAs will take the marquee awards show from Los Angeles to Brooklyn, N.Y., airing LIVE at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on August 25.

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“This suit is nothing more than a hypocritical attempt by Cablevision to void a long term carriage deal they agreed to only two months ago.  Cablevision is crying foul over a standard business practice that expands choice and lowers cost for consumers – a practice they use extensively to sell their own services. Cablevision received significant discount on a package of networks that account for nearly 20% of the total viewing audience.  Now they want the lower price without the obligation to offer our networks to their customers.  For Cablevision it’s ‘do as we say and not as we do’ – an arrogant approach all too familiar to its customers.”

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“At the request of distributors, Viacom and other programmers have long offered discounts to those who agree to provide additional network distribution. Many distributors take advantage of these win-win and pro-consumer arrangements. Reflecting the highly competitive cable programming business, these arrangements have been upheld by a number of federal courts and on appeal. Viacom will vigorously defend this transparent attempt by Cablevision to use the courts to renegotiate our existing two month old agreement.”

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For the freshest commentary, Nikki and Sara stay up-to-date on the latest celebrity news through a selection of blogs and Twitter and an Us Weekly app (Nikki), as well as gossip blog aggregator “WeSmirch” (Sara). After watching the first few episodes, though, it’s clear that the show is more fun than gossip. Nikki and Sara are two smart, funny women and their show is a fun lighthearted addition to the late night circuit – honest and sharp, without being scathing. And as lame as it might sound, their friendship, which shines through on-screen, delivers a refreshing sense of female camaraderie.

Here’s what Nikki and Sara had to say about their new show, what topics they see as “off-limits,” how they’ll evolve their social media presence to meet the needs of a growing audience, and, of course, Justin Timberlake.

What about Nikki & Sara sets it apart from the rest of the Late Night scene?

Sara: I think that because it’s two of us, and because it’s live, that makes it different. We’re also for MTV’s audience, which is a young but very pop culture savvy audience. When you combine all these factors together, we’re bringing something you’re not going to see anywhere else. Plus, we want it to be a fun show, not necessarily a biting, scathing celebrity tear-down show.  You’re not tuning in for that. You’re tuning in to talk about the things you’ve seen this week and hear what Sara and Nikki have to say about it.

Are any topics off-limits to you? How does your standup compare to what we might see on the show?

Nikki: One topic we want to completely stay away from is Chris Brown – that’s sort of like a mission statement over here for ourselves and our writing staffs. In terms of edginess, we’re trying to be as funny as possible – we’re not going to push the envelope for the sake of pushing the envelope.

Sara: We want to say smart, intelligent things layered in with what we’re joking about. If you think about what we’re saying, we’re either making a point about how we treat celebrities, how Hollywood treats people – we’re not trying to hit people over the head with it. Over time, as Nikki and I get more comfortable, we’re going to reveal more about ourselves. Compared to our stand-up, I think both of our standup material is very personal. It’s about our lives. We’re not doing the same jokes we’d do in standup, but I think our voice comes through regardless.

Nikki: The same filter we put our lives through when we’re doing standup, we’re doing with celebrities.

The two of you obviously have a relationship that goes deeper than work. How does your friendship and dynamic inform your comedy on the show?

Nikki: We’re best friends and co-hosts – we have a professional relationship. We treat ourselves like we treat celebrities – we call each other out when it’s deserved, but we’re not mean to each other because we love each other. We have senses of humor about each other.

Sarah: We support each other. You can see that on the show. We like to laugh about what’s cute about each other. We’re not those girls that go, like, “Hey B*tch!” We don’t call each other bitches. We have a sweet friendship. And I think that comes through and that makes us a little different than what you might expect from two very honest, strong female standup comedians. I think that’s the surprise that you get when you watch the show – that we’re hugging each other and enthusiastic about each other.

Being women – how does that inform your comedy? Do you consider yourself female comediennes or are you past that?

Sarah: I think we’re past it, but I think we’re not ashamed to say I am female and I am a comedian – and that that makes me different. We’re proud of it. To generalize, I think women tend to be more authentic in expressing their emotions and being open. I think that that adds to our appeal and our comedy because we’re not afraid to say what we think and express ourselves – and it’s not like it’s to be “cool” or to impress anyone. When you sign up to be a comedian and you’re a girl, it’s not to get laid. Somehow I think a lot of guys want to be the in the center of the spotlight to get the girl. Girls want to be in the spotlight because they want to say something, and they want to be heard. Again, I’m making generalizations – this isn’t true across the board for everybody.

Do you have favorite comedians, comedians that inspire you?

Sara: I love Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and Louis CK. Growing up, Rosie O’Donnell and Ellen DeGeneres were very influential.

Nikki: I would also say Ellen and Tina Fey, but also, just in terms of late night influences, Jimmy Kimmel – his show I want to watch because he seems more off-the-cuff than other hosts. His interviews seem like free form conversation. There’s a genuine interest in joking around, and there seems to be a friendship there with everyone he talks to. Plus his monologue is fun. I think the same for Conan. Conan is my hero. I will always look toward him for comedic guidance. His silliness is something that I truly admire.

How are you guys going to leverage your online presence with the show?

Nikki: We don’t have a Twitter account for our show because we both want to feel connected to our fans, so we’re keeping our personal accounts. I enjoy tweeting up until the moment I walk on stage. I have my phone in my hand, not my assistant tweeting for me. We want to give our followers a behind the scenes perspective – feeling like they really know us and are friends with us – because we’re open to that.

Sara: We’re doing live aftershow online after each episode so people can immediately ask us questions about what they saw on the show, right in the moment. I think that’s a great way to connect directly with people. This [engaging online] is just something I’ve been doing for a long time, working for an online TV show. It’s great to have my own show to take everything I learned from the past and really apply it. We’re going to do special web features – and treat that with the same quality and attention as we’d treat the TV material. I think sometimes people look at the web stuff as an afterthought, and it doesn’t turn out as great, but why would anyone want that? We’re still doing our podcasts and will continue to do those – those, through our fans, helped get us here.

So far you’ve brought Ke$ha, Jenny McCarthy, Shane Mitchell of Pretty Little Liars – who would you love to bring on the show?

Sara: I would love to try and get Justin Timberlake to come on the show since we’re such huge fans and it makes total sense to us that he would do our show… but who knows.

Do you feel responsible for his comeback [through your video]?

Nikki: If you noticed, the Grammy ads all touted “Justin Timberlake’s return to music,” and I don’t know if it would have been presented this way if we hadn’t done our part.

Sara: We put a voice to a feeling that a lot of people had about this particular situation. He had his plans the whole time, but maybe we helped him realize how much people wanted this and how he could capitalize on that and make a really big deal out of it, which is what he’s doing and I love it.

Did his return disappoint? How do you feel about “Suit & Tie”?

Nikki: We love it. “Suit & Tie” is like the theme song – it’s what we listen to to get amped up for shows. It’s what we listen to at the office.

Nikki & Sara Live airs on Tuesday nights at 11 p.m. ET/PT on MTV.

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