Thursday, March 28, 2024

Country Music Fans in Alphabet Soup as CBS Ups CMT Awards to Network Status After Losing ACM Show

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Country music fans are literally in alphabet soup tonight trying to remember which of their awards shows is on what network.

Involved in this story are CBS, NBC, and ABC dealing with CMA, CMT, and ACM. Get out your Scrabble pieces and follow along.

The Country Music Awards recently signed a big deal to stay on ABC TV through 2026. It’s a genius deal because the CMA’s are like the Oscars of country music. They’re the big Kahuna, so to speak. The CMAs were long ago on CBS but ABC lured them away and have turned them  into an even bigger commodity. CBS should never have let them get away.

CBS was home to the Academy of Country Music Awards for years. They’re like the Golden Globes or the American Music Awards, produced by Dick Clark Productions. But after very low ratings this year, apparently DCP — more initials — came back to CBS and asked for $22 million for a multi year contract. CBS said no, and DCP walked.

So now CBS, the most country friendly network because of its older skewing audience, needed a country music show. So they’ve turned to Country Music Television, which they own, for the CMT Awards. The CMTs had been on CBS networks via Viacom, but now they’ll come to the Big Network next year. It’s like an understudy finally getting to go on.

So what about those ACM’s? DCP is said to be negotiating a deal to bring them to NBC, where the Golden Globes air. Of course, this coming January there are no Golden Globes as the HFPA (yet more initials!) has yet to bring in one Black member after a massive scandal broke out this spring over their membership. So no Globes in 2022. Or maybe ever. Who knows? But the ACMs will be a good look for NBC, and each of the Big 3 will have lots of twangin’ and pluckin’ for years to come! Yee hah!

 

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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