For the second year in a row SpikeTV’s Video Game Awards will be hosted by Samuel L. Jackson (right). And this time the show will also be streamed online, not just broadcast on TV. World premiere trailers of WoW: The Burning Crusade and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 will be featured.

SpikeTV is broadening its reach with its fourth annual VGAs (Video Game Awards), which celebrates the best games in the industry through a two-hour television broadcast packed with Hollywood stars. For the first time, gamers will be able to watch a streaming broadcast of the show on SpikeTV.com, GameTrailers.com or Xfire.com on Wednesday December 13 at 10 p.m.

Steve Farrell director of digital media for SpikeTV, said that beyond building this online experience on the three Web sites, which are now part of the same Viacom family, there will be new interactive initiatives aimed at gamers.

"Beyond celebrity interviews from the red carpet and backstage interviews with all of the winners, Xfire.com will allow gamers to play Electronic Arts’ Battlefield 2142 from the red carpet against celebrities," said Farrell.

These live gameplay competitions will take place on December 8, when the show tapes at the University of Southern California’s Galen Center in Los Angeles. Helping the celebrities in these gameplay sessions will be a number of pro gamers, who Farrell said would serve as virtual bodyguards so that the celebrities "don’t get hosed." Those who attend the taping will be able to try out games at Xfire.com kiosks in the lobby and there will also be gaming stations backstage in the press area.

To promote the VGAs, Farrell said he expects some of the digital original shorts that are produced at the red carpet and surrounding the festivities to be released on Xbox Live Marketplace’s new media offerings. In addition, some content will be available before the broadcast on SpikeTV’s YouTube.com channel. Farrell said this type of content will be used to help build up excitement for the actual broadcast event.

After starring in a series of taped comedy sketches from the Mexican set of Nacho Libre for last year’s award show, Jack Black will perform at this year’s VGAs with his band, Tenacious D. In addition, AFI, who’s nominated for Best Song ("Summer Shudder" in Madden NFL 07), will perform on stage.

Samuel L. Jackson, a gamer himself, will host the awards for the second straight year. Other celebrities that are confirmed as presenters include 50 Cent, NBA star Mike Bibby, Seth Green, Tony Hawk, Method Man and Rachael Leigh Cook. Additional celebrities and bands will be confirmed in the future. The VGAs will also showcase comedians for the first time this year through short concert performances, but details on that aspect of the show won’t be announced until later.

In keeping with its tradition of debuting world premiere trailers for 2007 game releases, the VGAs will feature the two-minute opening cinematic for Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade game. Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 will also have an exclusive trailer debut.

"The industry was so big on the business side and on the creative side celebrity and music talent has been embracing games for years, but there wasn’t this mega event to celebrate it," said Casey Patterson, executive producer VGAs and senior vice president, event production and talent development for Spike TV. "We didn’t have to build the VGAs, the genre just needed to be celebrated on the screen in a big-name way just like Hollywood does with movies and music."

Patterson said that the VGAs have been a work-in-progress over the past four years. She said SpikeTV is constantly gathering feedback from gamers, both through online outreach and through focus groups, to ensure that each show focuses on the games and content that gamers are craving.

"We don’t just want to just bring Hollywood talent out onto the stage, we want to show gamers exclusive new games and provide them with information that makes this show relevant," said Patterson. "We’re a network for men and this is a really big part of their day-in, day-out lives. We celebrate games the same way we’d celebrate any other part of their entertainment culture."