CBS’ inaugural broadcast of the CMT Music Awards will air live from Nashville on Sunday, April 3, 2022. In moving from CMT to CBS, the show will expand from 2-1/2 to three hours, airing from 8 to 11 p.m. (live ET/delayed PT).
Billboard announced the show’s move to CBS on June 28. The network announced the airdate on Thursday (July 8).
The CMT Music Awards’ move to April 3 puts it just three weeks ahead of the ACM Awards, which previously announced an April 24, 2022, airdate – as well as its return to Las Vegas after two years in smaller venues in Nashville during the pandemic. The ACM Awards, which aired on CBS every year from 1998 to 2021, have not yet announced their new network home.
The ACM Awards have aired in April every year since 2009 (except 2020, when the pandemic pushed them to Sept. 16). The CMT Music Awards have aired in June every year since 2009 (again except 2020, when the pandemic pushed them to Oct. 21).
Next spring, that relatively modest separation between the two shows will shrink. That may not work to the advantage of either show, the country audience, or the artists involved.
CMT will kick off the company’s first ever Country Music Week by hosting weeklong special programming and events capped by exclusive director’s cut airings of the CMT Music Awards later on CMT and various ViacomCBS platforms.
The CMT Music Awards, which bills itself as country music’s only entirely fan-voted award show, have aired live since 2005. Carrie Underwood is the most-awarded artist in the show’s history with 23 wins, including a remarkable nine wins in the top category, video of the year.
The 2021 CMT Music Awards, which aired June 9, featured the most ever first-time and blended-genre collaborations in the show’s history.
The show, hosted by Kelsea Ballerini and Kane Brown, saw more than a 10% increase in total viewers and was the No. 1 most social program across all of television for the night, according to ViacomCBS figures. Across the six ViacomCBS network simulcast, P18-34 ratings saw a 32% increase over last year’s show.
Largely through process of elimination, with ABC already airing the CMA Awards, some have speculated that the ACM Awards may return to NBC, which was its home from 1979 to 1997.
The ACM Awards are produced by dick clark productions, which is owned by MRC. MRC and Penske Media are co-parent companies of Billboard.
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