Dierks Bentley, Vince Gill Celebrate Grand Ole Opry’s 95th Anniversary
This story has been updated.
The Grand Ole Opry will begin celebrating its 95th Anniversary on Saturday, October 3rd, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, gathering for the country music institution’s 4,944th consecutive Saturday night broadcast. And for the first time since early March, the Grand Ole Opry will be inviting in audience members to participate in a limited capacity.
Dierks Bentley, Vince Gill, Terri Clark, and Lorrie Morgan will help usher in an entire month of special performances celebrating 95 years at the Opry, while 500 in-person attendees will be added to the 4,372-capacity Grand Ole Opry House under strict guidelines, bringing applause back to the presentation. Dierks Bentley will also be celebrating his 15th Anniversary as an Opry member Saturday night.
“With gratitude to the artists who have visited the Opry since March, staff members and partners who have ensured the Opry went on every Saturday, and a worldwide audience for tuning in over the past six months, we are so excited as we plan to welcome fans back to the Opry House,” says Dan Rogers, Opry vice president and executive producer. “So many loyal fans make plans early to be a part of our birthday weekend every year, and I am especially excited that many of those devoted familiar faces will be in the first in-house audience since late last winter.
The Opry’s Saturday night live feeds have been one of the most popular streaming events during the COVID-19 shutdown, ranking near the top of Pollstar’s charts of such events, averaging more than one million viewers each week. The Opry was also the only musical institution to continue (virtually) uninterrupted through the pandemic.
The celebration of the Opry’s 95th Anniversary will continue throughout the month of October, with the preliminary lineups for performances being:
October 10: “Opry Firsts”: Celebrating Opry debuts and other firsts on the Opry stage. Carly Pearce, Jeannie Seely, Josh Turner and more.
October 17: “95 Years of Great Opry Songs”: Celebrating top songs and those who wrote them. Bill Anderson, Brandy Clark, Chris Janson and more.
October 24: “Opry Goes Pink”: The Opry’s 12th Annual Show Marking the Fight Against Breast Cancer | Lauren Alaina, Little Big Town, Victoria Shaw and more
October 31: Clint Black, Steve Wariner
How To Watch
Fans can watch Saturday night’s (9-26) Opry presentation live via the embedded player below, on the new Circle Network via local affiliates of the expanding channel (check availability), on the Circle Network’s Facebook Page, or on The Circle Network’s YouTube page, or listen via WSM. The presentation begins at 7 p.m. Central.
Just this week, it was announced The Circle Network has partnered with the four biggest television streaming platforms—Roku, Samsung’s TV Plus, Vizio’s SmartCast, and the Comcast-owned Xumo—to offer the network to these subscribers as well.
Originally, the hour-long Opry segment each week on The Circle Network was meant to take performances from the numerous Opry shows during the week and assemble them into one recap. However when the pandemic cancelled the regular weekly Opry presentations and forced the Saturday evening show down to one hour, they decided to carry the entire hour live.
October 3, 2020 @ 2:05 pm
I checked my zip code
This is what it said:
Over-the-Air – WLNY 55.5
(That looks like a radio station to me)
Earlier this year, I called my cable provider. They said my area would receive the channel by summer or fall.
Anyone else waiting like me?? I’m a New Englander with Frontier services
October 3, 2020 @ 6:01 pm
That’s probably a digital over-the-air TV channel. I’m in northeast MA and was surprised to find I can get circle on 38.5 if I plug an antenna into the back of the TV (remember those?). Not on cable here either, but I don’t subscribe anyway.
October 3, 2020 @ 4:19 pm
Bummed they won’t be offering it on YT, I don’t get The Circle otherwise.
October 3, 2020 @ 4:21 pm
They finally posted a player for it a few minutes ago, so it WILL be on YouTube. Usually they will post it days before. Not sure why there was a delay this time.
October 3, 2020 @ 4:19 pm
Just a quick update: It appears the Circle Network WILL continue to stream the Opry live. They just posted a palyer for it on YouTube (embedded above).
October 3, 2020 @ 4:50 pm
Once the pandemic is over, I assume the YouTube streaming will be over too.
Hopefully by then, the channel will be accessible to the rest of America & not just in rural middle America (similar to the accessibility of RFDTV)
October 4, 2020 @ 3:48 am
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/dbloom/2020/10/02/grand-ol-oprys-circle-network-joins-four-big-video-streaming-platforms/amp/
October 4, 2020 @ 5:44 am
I’m in rural middle and the only option we have is the over the air antenna that won’t pick up the signal 90% of the time….and no streaming either as we can’t get very good high speed broadband out in the country. Circle Tv has taken all the Hee Haw and old Opry shows off RFD and put them on a channel most older people can’t get or can’t figure out how to watch.
October 3, 2020 @ 4:47 pm
“95 Years of Great Opry Songs” & “Chris Janson” should never be stated in the same sentence … Major Yee-Naw
October 3, 2020 @ 4:59 pm
It’s terrifying that the Opry thinks the “next generation” of story tellers are Chris Young, Chris Janson, & Dustin Lynch.
They are the rejects of the mainstream world with it taking nearly a year for their singles to peak at radio. Their albums don’t stream well & they aren’t headlining big shows..
Luke Combs was a great pick, ill give them that.
October 3, 2020 @ 5:14 pm
Vince Gill was a great choice to commemorate the Opry’s birthday. He displays a great awareness and reverence for the artists who came before him.
October 3, 2020 @ 7:26 pm
We have been watching it on Youtube usually after it has started live. Then I can skip the annoying announcers and just hear the artists. Wonderful lineup tonight and loved them doing an older song. After hearing Terri Clark talk about loving country growing up and being ribbed about it school, her version of “I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool” was spot on, as well as Lorri Morgan’s “Its The End Of The World”, when you think of what she has gone through. Great night!
October 4, 2020 @ 5:43 am
Don’t know who the female presenter was on last night but she was just a bit annoying. Actually, she was most annoying. A great show otherwise.
October 4, 2020 @ 10:02 am
I must admit I find it somewhat humorous that the Opry backing band all masked up during their performances, but Bentley’s band couldn’t be bothered to do the same. For an artist so clearly concerned with image/perception (as any artist on a major label is), it seems odd that Bentley and his reps would run the risk of the Social Media mobs going after him for not making his band mask up. I bet someone at Capitol Records was making a phone call pretty quickly after the show went off the air….