VH1’s Divas Live has nothing on this year’s MTV Video Music Awards (Sept. 13, MTV, from Radio City Music Hall in New York City), where the big battle is between Lady Gaga and Beyoncé, who each scored nine nominations.

Both female artists are among the contenders for Video of the Year – Gaga’s “Poker Face” and Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” – along with Britney Spears‘ “Womanizer,” Eminem‘s “We Made You” and Kanye West‘s “Love Lockdown.”

Spears is also a major contender with seven VMA nominations, while Eminem, Kanye West and Coldplay have four each. The list of VMA performers so far includes Taylor Swift, Green Day, Pink and Muse.

And the complete list of nominees for the 26th annual VMAs, which will be hosted by British comedian Russell Brand for the second consecutive year:

VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Beyoncé – “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)”
Britney Spears – “Womanizer”
Eminem – “We Made You”
Kanye West – “Love Lockdown”
Lady Gaga – “Poker Face”

BEST MALE VIDEO
Eminem – “We Made You”
Jay-Z – “D.O.A (Death of Auto-Tune)”
Kanye West – “Love Lockdown”
Ne-Yo – “Miss Independent”
T.I. featuring Rihanna – “Live Your Life”

BEST FEMALE VIDEO
Beyoncé – “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)”
Katy Perry – “Hot ‘N Cold”
Kelly Clarkson” “My Life Would Suck Without You”
Lady Gaga – “Poker Face”
Pink – “So What”
Taylor Swift – “You Belong With Me”

BEST NEW ARTIST
3OH!3
Asher Roth
Drake
Kid Cudi
Lady Gaga

BEST POP VIDEO
Beyoncé – “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)”
Britney Spears – “Womanizer”
Cobra Starship featuring Leighton Meester – “Good Girls Go Bad”
Lady Gaga – “Poker Face”
Wisin y Yandel – “Abusadora”

BEST ROCK VIDEO
Coldplay – “Viva La Vida”
Fall Out Boy – “I Don’t Care”
Green Day – “21 Guns”
Kings Of Leon – “Use Somebody”
Paramore – “Decode”

BEST HIP-HOP VIDEO
Asher Roth – “I Love College”
Eminem – “We Made You”
Flo Rida – “Right Round”
Jay-Z – “D.O.A (Death of Auto-Tune)”
Kanye West – “Love Lockdown”

BREAKTHROUGH VIDEO
Anjulie – “Boom”
Bat For Lashes – “Daniel”
Chairlift – “Evident Utensil”
Cold War Kids – “I’ve Seen Enough”
Death Cab For Cutie – “Grapevine Fires”
Gnarls Barkley – “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul”
Major Lazer – “Hold The Line”
Matt & Kim – “Lessons Learned”
Passion Pit – “The Reeling”
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Heads Will Roll”

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY
AR Rahman & Pussy Cat Dolls featuring Nicole Scherzinger – “Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)”
Beyoncé – “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)”
Britney Spears – “Circus”
Ciara featuring Justin Timberlake – “Love Sex Magic”
Kristina DeBarge – “Goodbye”

BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS
Beyoncé – “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)”
Eminem – “We Made You”
Gnarls Barkley – “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul”
Kanye West ft Mr. Hudson – “Paranoid”
Lady Gaga – “Paparazzi”

BEST DIRECTION
Beyoncé – “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)”
Britney Spears – “Circus”
Cobra Starship featuring Leighton Meester – “Good Girls Go Bad”
Green Day – “21 Guns”
Lady Gaga – “Paparazzi”

BEST EDITING
Beyoncé – “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)”
Britney Spears – “Circus”
Coldplay – “Viva La Vida”
Lady Gaga – “Paparazzi”
Miley Cyrus – “7 Things”

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Beyoncé – “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)”
Britney Spears – “Circus”
Coldplay – “Viva La Vida”
Green Day – “21 Guns”
Lady Gaga – “Paparazzi”

BEST ART DIRECTION
Beyoncé – “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)”
Britney Spears – “Circus”
Coldplay – “Viva La Vida”
Gnarls Barkley – “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul”
Lady Gaga – “Paparazzi”

And a fun retro category:

BEST VIDEO (THAT SHOULD HAVE WON A MOONMAN)
Beastie Boys – “Sabotage”
Bjork – “Human Behavior”
David Lee Roth – “California Girls”
Dr. Dre – “Nuthin’ But A ‘G’ Thang”
Foo Fighters – “Everlong”
George Michael – “Freedom”
OK Go – “Here It Goes Again”
Radiohead – “Karma Police”
Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers – “Into The Great Wide Open”
U2 – “Where The Streets Have No Name”

Viewer voting is live at MTV.com … just curious: what gets your vote for Best Video That Should Have Won a Moonman? I’m casting mine for Dr. Dre‘s “Nuthin’ But A ‘G’ Thang.” I can’t not watch that video any time it pops up on the tube.

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• Tags: Beyonce, Britney Spears, Eminem, Kanye West, Lady Gaga, MTV VMAs 2009, Russell Brand

All the tube news that’s fit to surf …

– Tonight’s big premiere: Michael and Michael Have Issues (10:30PM ET, Comedy Central), a great new comedy about comedians/The State alums/real-life pals Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter and their sometimes prickly relationship. In the premiere, the two, who co-star in a show-within-the-show sketch series, get into a little war over the attention of a reporter – a high school newspaper reporter – who’s an intern at the show and wants to write a feature on them. I’ve seen the first two episodes, and I think it’s my favorite new comedy since I discovered the joy of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

– Mad Men season two is out on DVD today, and Jezebel.com has a great list of 15 feminist moments from the show.

– Does Simon Cowell have plans to become the new Walt Disney?

– Russell Brand is returning as host of the MTV Video Music Awards, which are returning to New York City, on Sept. 13.

– So many TV shows are headed to the big screen, but TBS is bringing a sitcom version of the Ice Cube flick Are We There Yet? to the tube next June.

– Hapless photographer Jo (Daphne Zuniga) – really, she had some of the worst luck of any female on the show – will return to Melrose Place when the remake hits The CW this fall.

– Jennifer Garner has a new development deal with ABC, though it does not, unfortunately, involve her sharing the screen with Vaughn, Marshall, Dixon, Sloane, Weiss or Papa Bristow.

– FX is filming a new semi-improvised sitcom called The League, about a group of thirtysomething dudes and their fantasy football league. The show co-stars comedians Nick Kroll and Paul Sheer, as well as Popular‘s Leslie Bibb and My Name Is Earl‘s Nadine Velazquez.

– NBC Universal Digital has released the first three episodes of its latest online sitcom, CTRL, which features the always delightful Tony Hale, a.k.a. Arrested Development‘s Buster and Chuck‘s Buy More associate, Emmett.

– Eliza Couple, one of the best additions to Scrubs last season as intern Denise/Jo, has been upgraded to regular status for next season.

– That mediocre, at best, Entourage season premiere scored big ratings, more than doubling the number of viewers who tuned in for the previous season premiere. In fact, HBO’s whole Sunday night line-up, which includes the red hot True Blood and new dramedy Hung, saw a ratings increase on Sunday.

– And tonight in primetime:

– A 58-year-old grandma is among the contenders on Wipeout (8PM ET, ABC)
– The Travel Channel turns its cameras on Extreme Barhopping (8PM), including a bar that serves a $10,000 drink
– Mariah Carey‘s new video “Obsessed” (the one where she dresses like a dude and reportedly makes fun of Eminem) premieres on America’s Got Talent (9PM, NBC), which is hosted, natch, by her hubby, Nick Cannon
– Timothy Hutton returns with his merry band of Robin Hood-ish con men for the second season premiere of Leverage (9PM, TNT)
– CNBC examines Porn: The Business of Pleasure (9PM)
– The Practice star Dylan McDermott makes primetime a lot prettier as he returns to the tube in the new Jerry Bruckheimer undercover cop drama Dark Blue (10PM, TNT)
– Season two of Verminators premieres at 10PM (Discovery)
– Bravo has a new ep of Top Chef Masters (10PM)
– E! premieres a new True Hollywood Story on the late Natasha Richardson (10PM)
– On The Real World: Cancun (10PM, MTV), everybody’s trying to get laid. So, it’s like every other episode of RW
– It’s the aforementioned premiere of Comedy Central’s Michael and Michael Have Issues at 10:30PM
– And, it’s not quite primetime, but you at least have to set the TiVo for Paul McCartney‘s first trip to The Late Show with David Letterman (11:35PM, CBS), and his first return to the Ed Sullivan Theater since he and The Beatles made their American debut there 45 years ago

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• Tags: Are We There Yet? TV show, CTRL, Daphne Zuniga, Eliza Couple, Entourage, Jennifer Garner, Mad Men, Melrose Place, Michael and Michael Have Issues, Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, MTV Video Music Awards, Russell Brand, The League FX, Tony Hale