Ding Dong, The CMT Awards Are Dead!
Oh thank God. The CMT Awards are no longer, at least for now, and likely forever. And it couldn’t have come sooner, or to a more deserving presentation. Country music’s ugly stepchild of an awards show was a forum for some of the most embarrassing moments from B-level stars over the years, and now hopefully these meaningless awards will end up right where they belong: the dustbin of history.
From Zac Brown’s weird F-Bomb amid the cratering of his career, to Kelsea Ballerini’s forced Drag Queen story hour performance in 2023—like simply presenting Drag Queens on a country show will miraculously make homophobes change their stripes—to Jelly Roll’s shake shack preacher sermons complete with alligator tears for an award nobody gives a $hit about, it had all become downright inadvertently comical.
We knew this was probably coming after the latest round of bloodletting at CMT, which included the company’s high profile Senior Vice President, Leslie Fram, and other top talent. The cuts came amid the cost-cutting doom cycle that the cable network has been suffering from for years now, divesting in original content as opposed to doubling down on it.
An impending merger of CMT’s parent company Paramount Global with David Ellison’s Skydance Media has accelerated cost cuts as they look to shed $500 million in overhead ahead of the merger. Though the company has promised not to touch MTV’s VMA Awards, which continue to be a cultural moment, or Nickelodeon’s Kid’s Choice Awards, all of their other awards are getting the axe, including the CMTs according to an internal memo.
One of the worst aspects of the CMT Awards was how media outside of country music (and some dyslexic country fans) never could tell the difference between them and the much older and venerated Country Music Association Awards, or CMAs. Not that on a bad year the CMAs are anything to write home about or be proud of as a country fan either. But at least there was some history and meaning behind them.
As fan-voted awards that centered around videos, the CMT Awards always had a credibility problem by not being able to draw top talent, and in recent years, being completely out of step with country fans by trying to force corporate HR-style diversity initiatives upon a fan base who just weren’t having it. The CMT Awards used to be a centerpiece of June’s CMA Fest in Nashville, but strangely moved to Austin the last couple of years where they were even more out-of-place.
Hypothetically, you could trace the awards back to the old Music City News Awards launched in 1967, which then became the fan-voted Viewers’ Choice Awards airing on TNN in 1988. Then in 2001, they moved to sister network CMT, and by 2002, they were completely retooled around videos and became the fan-voted CMTs. But any and all history was bled out of the awards through the various iterations. Whenever a legendary country performer passed, few if anyone would cite how many CMT Awards they accrued like they would CMAs, or ACM Awards.
Ultimately, the CMT Awards just became a distraction in country, and seemed to devalue all country music awards that became even more redundant and ubiquitous when NBC and the Grand Ole Opry launched their ill-conceived People’s Choice Country Awards, and it’s 17 nominations for Beyoncé last cycle (she won 0 of the fan-voted awards). The CMT’s allegedly tried to give Beyoncé an award in 2024 as well, inventing one out of whole cloth to entice her to the presentation. Beyoncé declined.
It’s fair to question how long for the world all music awards shows are, but the CMTs always seemed like an excessively dumb exercise. At least country music’s 2nd tier talent will forever have a handy weight whenever brisk bursts of wind threaten to blow papers off of desks. But except for that, a CMT Award is just about good for nothing.
– – – – – – – –
If you enjoyed this article, consider leaving Saving Country Music A TIP.
February 8, 2025 @ 9:55 am
If not wanting to see men in dresses exercising some sexual fetish with that being presented as normal behaviour in an awards show for a music genre historically known for being connected to the “working man” and traditionalism, makes one a homophobe……I have good news and bad news for you…
February 8, 2025 @ 10:04 am
The point I was making is that simply presenting something on the stage of an awards show doesn’t automatically make the American population more amenable to it, which is the ludicrous hypothesis of some. Ironically, these attempts to shift the Overton Window often are counter-productive to both the cause, and the presentation attempting to forward it.
I think diverse representation in music is important. Shoving certain things down people’s throats rarely goes well.
February 8, 2025 @ 10:15 am
I am halfway trying to be empathetic to the point but I still don’t understand what actions of homophobia are being done against the gay communitiy to where the only solution is to have men in drag in heterosexual spaces – especially those demonstrations where children are present.
February 8, 2025 @ 10:28 am
Strait,
You’re asking me to argue something here that I am actually arguing against, and to be frank, is not even relevant to this discussion, and runs the risk of dragging this comments section off the rails.
I believe everyone should be allowed to love whoever they want. I also believe that if men want to dress up as women, they can go right ahead. It’s a free country, and I think the government and everyone else should take out of people’s private matters.
All I said was acting like presenting drag queens on a country awards show will somehow make the country music public more receptive to that culture is ludicrous and hubristic, and ultimately, counter-productive. The cancellation of the CMT Awards I think is evidence of why that opinion is valid.
February 8, 2025 @ 10:31 am
I agree with that sentiment. I felt compelled to defend the alleged homophobes within Country music because that word was used in this article.
February 9, 2025 @ 11:26 am
“I believe everyone should be allowed to love whoever they want.”
For you to make this statement requires you to objectively define “love”, which you cannot do without appealing to the Creator of Love. And if you do that, you’ll contradict yourself.
It is inherently and objectively hateful to engage in a same-sex relationship.
“I also believe that if men want to dress up as women, they can go right ahead. It’s a free country, and I think the government and everyone else should take out of people’s private matters.”
Is there any level of decency that you believe a civil society should adhere to?
February 9, 2025 @ 10:25 pm
@King Honky
“Is there any level of decency that you believe a civil society should adhere to?”
Country music has always been hypocritical in it’s embrace of both Christianity and sexuality. The Roy Clark / Hee Haw “drag” reference was made and I know Hee Haw had sexual innuedo and scantily clad women. Like a large number of us, Daisy Duke was an early crush of mine and that G-rated show leaned heavy into the cleavage and short shorts. There is hypocrisy on what level of expression of sexuality is permissible in Country music. As a straight man I have a biological revulsion to seeing overt displays of homosexual affection. This is the same for most straight men which is why there is a bias against not wanting to see gay male displays of affection. I suppose that is unfair but I would ask again why is it neccesary to show that “expression” in a place where it overwhelmingly isn’t wanted?
February 8, 2025 @ 12:29 pm
Children don’t care, only prejudiced adults do.
February 8, 2025 @ 1:48 pm
As a matter of fact Country Music has a rich history of drag performances (from a certain perspective)
This might come as a shock to some people but Roy Clark was a drag performer.
Lou Albano the wrestler performed in drag
Neither one of those gentlemen could be called anything other than traditionally masculine. Roy Clark was a boxer, a guitarist, he flew planes.
Lou Albano was a wrestler.
Remember when Roy Clark played Mama Myrtle on Beverly Hillbillies? wasn’t she enamored with Jethro? that was Roy Clark in a dress.
That scene when Myrtle was chasing Max Baer (himself a drag performer (Jethrene)) at the end of one of the cousin roy episodes. from a certain point of view, that was CBS featuring two drag performers on a popular television show
Lou Albano was the voice of Mario in the Mario bros cartoon. I distinctly remember one of the live action segments Mario was visited by his cousin ‘Marianne’ who was just Lou Albano now in a dress. The joke was that Marianne was real and everyone thought she was just Mario.
Both of those shows were child friendly and if someone can actually provide a meaningful distinction between Roy Clark wearing a dress to play his own character’s mother and a different performer dressing up as Snow White I’d love to hear it.
“But it’s different that’s entertainment’
I don’t know how to tell people this but EVERYTHING is entertainment.
Kabuki Theatre is entertainment. So is Wagnerian opera.
You sit in a chair and watch costumed performers dance around and sing.
It’s the same experience. Revenge at Ganryu island is THE SAME THING as watching Lohengrin and it’s weird to pretend otherwise.
Everything people do in front of others is entertainment.
Jim Carrey wearing what i assume were prosthetics to be gerald robotnik vs Roy Clark in a dress as Mother Myrtle? Jackie Chan in twin dragon? Elvis in kissin cousins?
It’s the same thing! It’s two actors each playing two parts in the same respective production.
And Country Music and rural entertainment has lots of other examples.
Didn’t buddy ebsen wear a maid outfit for an episode of beverly hillbillies?
Don Knotts wore a bridal outfit in andy griffith once
All of those shows, Mario Bros, Beverly Hillbillies, Andy Griffith…
were FAMILY shows. and they were full of drag performances.
February 8, 2025 @ 4:32 pm
It’s not the same. One is a sort of minstrel show act which has existed for centuries, the other is a form of expression, kink, or whatever you call it from within the gay community.
February 9, 2025 @ 8:14 am
So, let me get this Strait: if an heterosexual man dressed as a woman for entertainment, let’s say like Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire, it’s okay, but if a gay man do, it’s not. And this has nothing to do with a phobia, aka an irrational fear of what would happen to children’s minds (gasp!) if they just witness the existence of a diverse world, nor is it stomping on their basic human rights of not being discriminated based on their sexual orientation, right ?
February 9, 2025 @ 11:19 am
“So, let me get this Strait: if an heterosexual man dressed as a woman for entertainment, let’s say like Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire, it’s okay, but if a gay man do, it’s not. And this has nothing to do with a phobia, aka an irrational fear of what would happen to children’s minds (gasp!) if they just witness the existence of a diverse world, nor is it stomping on their basic human rights of not being discriminated based on their sexual orientation, right ?
M-A,
Does this conflating of two categorically different and completely unrelated things ever work for you in debates or discussions?
February 9, 2025 @ 10:05 pm
Using the most basic description both scenarios involve men dressing up as women but the intent is different. The Mrs. Doubtfire, Barney Fife, even Vince Gill in that one music video examples all involve straight men dressing up as women for comedic effect. Gay men and drag is overtly sexual in nature, whether it’s Ru Paul, the drag shows at gay bars, or the viral videos of barely dressed men dancing for under 10 children online, they all are sexual in nature.
“aka an irrational fear of what would happen to children’s minds (gasp!) if they just witness the existence of a diverse world,”
Alan Ginsberg made this same claim on William F Buckley’s show Firing Line in 68′ where he argued that children should be exposed to the overly homosexual references in his poem ‘Howl.’ (Ginsberg also infamously supported NAMBLA and was a known Pedophile.)
February 9, 2025 @ 11:17 am
“Ironically, these attempts to shift the Overton Window often are counter-productive to both the cause, and the presentation attempting to forward it.
Trig,
It sounds like you don’t understand the purpose of shifting the Overton Window.
There is no delusion on the part of the Window mover that the mover’s enemies will change. The purpose of moving the Window is to make something that was previously off-limits in public acceptable to the normies.
They succeeded in doing that. Their enemies, me included, are obviously unchanged, but the Window has no doubt moved. And once a Window moves, moving it back necessitates actions that most of the general public lacks the stomach for.
Fortunately, to your point, politics can result in a pendulum. I’m looking forward to the radically uncomfortable (to normies) swing to the right that appears to be coming.
February 13, 2025 @ 3:44 pm
you must be describing your own publication that feeds upon nothingburgers and warns us not to get fat. So just spit it out Trigger, whoops….maybe not. We forget that even though you swallow the whole nine-yards, you still lack something to exit the other direction under pretext of journalism.
or as Billy Preston sezzz: nothing from nothing is nothing [chacka-lacka-boom]
February 8, 2025 @ 1:31 pm
Agreed.
Folks aren’t scared of it.
February 9, 2025 @ 1:03 am
Well, who can forget the ultimate country “drag” performance Moe Bandy & Joe Stampley in “Where’s the Dress,” the “Karma Chameleion” knock-off that got them sued by Boy George.
The hilarious video–including a cameo by Roy Acuff shown throwing Moe and Joe–in their dresses, high heels and all–out of the Opry–seems to have been scrubbed from the Internet, for some reason It was up on Y-T for years, but no more. All that’s available is them singing the song on record and in concert, but without any change in costumes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAFm9WFLOE8
I guess the difference is that most of these country and vaudeville performances of men in women’s attire are so bad that they’re seen more as mocking and ridiculing drag, than being part of it. Of course, a lot of actual drag may be over-the-top as well, and it would be impossible to draw a clear line between the two forms.
February 9, 2025 @ 8:41 am
Yeah, there’s a lot of conflict here between what people are calling “drag” and “skit comedy” and “Vaudeville.” If you want to get into the weeds of country performers dressing up and appearing on the Grand Ole Opry and other places, let’s also talk about Blackface performance and Blackface comedy. “Drag” as we know it today goes well beyond someone putting on a dress to be silly.
February 9, 2025 @ 9:02 am
Obviously not the same thing. Still interesting to read that one is ok and the other is not, and the OP insisting that the difference isn’t based on some kind of irrational fear (the same kind of mental distorsion that insist that, if my kids see a drag reading in a public library, it’s the same thing as exposing them to raunchy jokes in a bar, or that suggest that I’m irresponsibly exposing them to a « kink » or a « fetish » that could scar them for life… and I can’t do that and be a workin country-lovin’ man at the same time… but yeah, no phobia there, no stereotypes and no discrimination, right ?
February 8, 2025 @ 9:58 am
Both people who ever cared about the CMT awards are very sad.
February 8, 2025 @ 10:45 am
“At least country music’s 2nd tier talent will forever have a handy weight whenever brisk bursts of wind threaten to blow papers off of desks.”
In a Docusign, Musescore, and Office 365 world, that isn’t worth as much as you think. So good back scratchers and pet chew toys then?
February 8, 2025 @ 12:15 pm
We should always treat news of things failing with concern, as they *can* represent an underlying issue. In this case, the shrinking of traditional markets as newer technology renders them obsolete while not being accessible to a certain market.
I, for one, like most people 65 and older, don’t use, or fully understand music streaming and would rather buy CDs than pay for a service that I can’t guarantee my satisfaction with.
For me, the idea that streaming and ‘non permanent’ internet services are rendering previously long standing and otherwise viable services impractical is concerning, because it also represents a fast advancing march towards the obsolescence of all things with which i am familiar and eventually I may be barred from experiencing newer music entirely because it is on no medium i can access
So if any previously solvent institution is struggling, we should be worried that it is a harbinger of eventually bigger disruptions.
As in the case of CMT and specifically these awards, most serious music fans have been poopooing CMT for twenty years and the CMT awards were irrelevant from conception except to the few tabloid addicted chronically online shallow hals who won’t watch a movie over ten years old because ‘it’s ancient’ and who have no discernible personalities
That said, something that was never relevant shouldn’t be grieved.
BUT in the larger sense this is another example of how consumers are using other methods to consume even their news as opposed to traditional rags, sites and channels, and eventually the market may be so fractured that we get full circle and start bundling accesses and subscriptions BUT an audience beyond a certain age will experience a huge barrier to entry to experiencing all sorts of shows, movies, music and news.
And we should at the least express concert about that
February 8, 2025 @ 1:55 pm
The way the CMT Awards were broadcast is a very interesting case study.
Obviously, they started by being broadcast by CMT. Then starting around 2012-2015 or so, they started streaming them online as well. I remember this, because I’ve never had cable, and this was my only way to watch them. Then after doing that for a couple of years, they stopped the online stream, which I knew would be their doom.
CMT also used to have an annual program called “Artists of the Year” that they ceased in 2022 with little or not fanfare amid other budget cuts. One year they had an all-woman lineup for the event, and later boasted that it got the best ratings in the event’s history. However, the way they were able to achieve that was by simulcasting it on all of Vicaom’s cable stations at the time, like MTV, VH1, Spike, TV Land, etc.
Then since most young people don’t have cable, and most everyone avoids CMT, they started broadcasting the CMTs on CBS the last couple of years. When that happened, I knew it would be the end of CMT. This is also the reason the ACM Awards moved from CBS to Amazon. Now CBS doesn’t have a country awards show, and Amazon does.
February 9, 2025 @ 9:07 pm
Truth be told, I think there have been way too many country music awards shows that, beyond the CMA’s and the ACM’s, are ludicrous on their face, and really bring out the worst in the industry as a whole, and the individuals and groups that get nominated. It’s as if the mere idea of being able to ply one’s trade is pointless without the bling and the prizes.
It’s as Linda Ronstadt has always said: “If you’re working for prizes, you’e in big trouble.”
February 8, 2025 @ 3:31 pm
Oh no how are they gonna fill the time slot between Reba reruns and Last Man Standing reruns
February 8, 2025 @ 4:55 pm
I remember being glued to CMT during the summers and after school in the early 90s, waiting for my favorite videos. Now it’s a shadow of its former self.
February 9, 2025 @ 1:29 pm
With the exception of Turner Classic Movies, pretty much all cable TV networks are a shadow of what they once were 20 years ago. It’s a dying format. People under 50 aren’t really watching cable TV and cable networks are mostly going for cheap programming. Presumably it’s more affordable for CMT to air reruns of Reba and Mike and Molly than to pay record companies to show music videos and stuff.
February 17, 2025 @ 10:00 am
The cable issue is… indicative of a broader lack of understanding of what people want to watch, as is the mainstream radio format.
No one talks about Willie’s Roadhouse not knowing it’s target audience. it’s people like me.
But TV has a serious problem of… not knowing what people want to watch.
There were like two channels that had programming that appealed to me: they showed Andy Griffith reruns, Green Acres, etc.
BUT I like more than just the shows affected by the CBS rural purge some almost sixty years ago
I also like He-Man (the 80s show) and classic saturday morning cartoons like the Ben Miller Sonic the Hedgehog, the Mario Bros show with Lou Albano that had the ‘Excuse me princess’ Legend of Zelda episodes included.
I like Secret Squirrel, The Real Ghostbusters cartoon, the all dogs go to heaven cartoon, Petticoat Junction, Fullmetal alchemist, the orginal Wonder Woman show, Adam West as Batman AND the 90s Batman with Mark Hamill’s Joker.
I liked Code Lyoko, and the Redwall Cartoon!
MOST of those shows aren’t on any channel! Naruto? crickets.
The reason cable is failing is because it’s competing with people’s desire to watch shows not available on cable.
All the saturday morning cartoons of the 80s? attack of the killer tomatoes (which is actually based on return of the killer tomatoes) he-man? thundercats? Mario Bros Super Show? Garfield and Friends?
People WANT to watch those 80s and 90s cartoons. there’s a huge audience for petticoat junction, there’s a huge audience for anime reruns of first generation pokemon naruto yugioh dbz etc
and there’s just… not a lot of options for watching older shows except to find them on third-tier streaming services or to buy them on disc.
I think cable would fix itself by offering an anime channel, an 80s cartoon channel, a 90s and 2000s channel, a cbs sitcom channel etc. and channels for lots of other older shows people still want to watch.
February 8, 2025 @ 5:47 pm
Excellent bunch of comments on this article!! Well done!!
February 8, 2025 @ 6:36 pm
“Corporate-style DEI initiatives ?” Hmmmmm…………………………..Back to the future for Country’s,ummm,little colour problem.
February 8, 2025 @ 8:31 pm
Country’s color problem is 100% the lack of black, Asian and Hispanic people who do not wish to listen to or perform country music and 0% anything else. Focusing on black people for simplicity’s sake, there have been black founded, owned and operated radio stations, music labels and later TV networks devoted to blues, jazz, soul, rock, R&B, hip hop and rap music dating back to the 1920s. The next such effort dedicated to country music will be the first. For all the talk of the need to identify, support and promote black country musicians that has strangely popped up in the last 10 years, not one single major figure in black entertainment has signed a black country act to a contract or invited them on a tour, and yes this includes Beyonce’s record label. If you were to talk to black music fans about their opinions of the genre and its artists and culture, their responses would be to dismiss and mock it. Even their claims of being allegedly upset at the treatment of black people by the country music industry is simply more of their dismissive mockery of a genre that they had a very low opinion of in the first place. While black pioneers in jazz, blues, R&B, rock, rap, pop and classical are rightfully regaled every black history month, absolutely no one in the black community knew of or cared about Linda Martell before now. Charley Pride is an anonymous figure in the black community. And the members of the black community who are familiar with Ray Charles’ Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music are so because it was mentioned in the movie White Men Can’t Jump (in a script written by a white man).
It is all politics mind you. No one talks about how black people were locked out of a rock genre that black people created because liberal white people love rock. They didn’t lift a finger to support Living Colour, Bonefish or the other struggling black rock acts. No one talks about how we haven’t had an American black male pop star THIS CENTURY (Drake and The Weeknd are Canadian) because they love that the genre is dominated by white females plus a token white Hispanic female that got her start on Disney or Nickelodeon. The complete and total absence of Asians from the entire American music industry, meaning that an American born Asian will probably get elected president or will become a worlds richest man type tech CEO before having a platinum selling Grammy winning album in any genre? No one talks about that either.
Meaning that there is no race problem in country music. The problem is that country is the only sector in the entire American entertainment industry that can’t be used to push a progressive aenda 100% of the time. The country music fandom has a substantial center right minority, and while some progressive country acts do exist, most country acts are apolitical with their music and public profiles because they choose not to alienate conservative country fans and this drives the leftist authoritarians out there who want to dominate everything and everyone nuts. Were the leftist s in pop and rap (note that there were quite a few conservative rappers back in the day with Sir Mix-a-Lot’s libertarianism being a good example but that isn’t allowed anymore) to take over country, you wouldn’t hear a peep about the need for more nonwhite performers in a genre that has zero nonwhite fans.
Note that Shaboozey was shut out at the Grammys despite having the literal #1 single of the century. Anyone calling the Grammys racist over it? Nope. They preferred those awards going to the pop feminists Beyonce, Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, Miley Cyrus and Charli XCX instead. Not a peep from any of the people who were oh so upset at Shaboozey not getting a CMA award, even though pop, rap and dance were the more appropriate categories for his not country song in the first place. More proof that none of these people actually care about nonwhite or female country acts. How many of them supported Maren Morris in her pivot to pop? Exactly.
February 9, 2025 @ 9:24 am
Post of the year candidate.
February 9, 2025 @ 4:58 pm
2 years
February 9, 2025 @ 2:49 pm
You lost me before the end of the first sentence. “100% the LACK of black, Asian and Hispanic people who DO NOT WISH to listen to or perform country music.”
I’m not going to hazard a guess as to whether you’re using the double negative as part of a rhetorical device or whether you just confused yourself.
February 10, 2025 @ 4:39 pm
Younger black people barely know (or care) about all the great black artists of the past. They only understand rap and modern pop. I have been around enough people to stand behind this assertion. If you went up to any random black person under 40 and ask them who Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson, Buddy Guy, Coltrane, Charley Pride, or the Ohio Players are, they won’t know.
February 17, 2025 @ 5:41 am
You just put “Roller Coaster of Love” in my internal monologue’s speakers.
Thank you.
February 11, 2025 @ 1:41 pm
Wow talk about hitting the nail on the head! The fact of the matter is that the people who enjoy listening to country music and typically attend shows are the same type of people who primarily make the music. It isn’t about skin pigmentation (colour, as the other comment said). Folks who live in the country, have small town values, and tend to be more conservative are traditionally the country crowd. There is no gatekeeping involved and, if anything, diverse artists are heavily promoted.
The biggest thing that has opened the doors to city people, progressives and other non traditional country fans is the alteration of the music to more closely match the pop scene. This is both lyrically and musically. You can call this good or bad because there are differing angles to view this from but those attending a Beyoncé Cowboy Carter show are mostly NOT the same people attending Tyler Childers or Sierra Ferrell concert.
February 8, 2025 @ 6:54 pm
The Nashville Network (TNN) was great when it was about country music or, at least, had shows that featured country artists. Then it started becoming watered down and started declining by showing old network reruns while CMT became the herald for all things country music. Then CMT started becoming watered down, declining and the Circle Network raised the country music banner. As George Jones once sang, “Whose gonna fill their shoes?” now that Circle is a ghost of what it was?
February 8, 2025 @ 8:14 pm
have not watched in years
February 8, 2025 @ 9:19 pm
I am not mourning or celebrating the demise of the CMT Awards as I have never seen the show, and whether it’s on or not does not affect me in the least.
February 8, 2025 @ 10:42 pm
In all seriousness, I wonder if it’s worth TikTok doing some form of country awards, given that there’s already one for creators.
CMT was a giant, and then like all broadcasters it had its territory encroached upon. All the same, the piece is valid and I am sure artist won’t be mourning it (are any??)
February 9, 2025 @ 3:20 am
I’ve never watched it, but at the same time I don’t think it’s cool to celebrate people with families losing jobs and work.
February 9, 2025 @ 8:37 am
The people with families losing their jobs and work already happened. This is the downstream effect of that. CMT has been so gutted, they wouldn’t have the personnel to put something like an awards show together. Over the last few years, it was Leslie Fram’s baby. In fact, CMT can’t do much of anything at this point, which eventually will result in the further loss of jobs, a.k.a. the doom cycle.
Don’t blame me for the fact that CMT mismanaged itself. For years I have been constructively criticizing this company and the decisions its made that were obviously detrimental, including so many of the curation and production decisions of the CMT Awards.
February 9, 2025 @ 10:13 am
My friend is a freelance cameraman who works various awards shows. If this was a show he previously worked he would be losing money. The same for lighting crew, transportation, caterers etc etc.
I have no idea how you came to the conclusion that I was blaming you for CMT’s mismanagement, nothing in my post suggested that.
I personally don’t think celebrating something that most definitely is causing people to lose work just because the music involved isn’t to your taste is a great look.
February 9, 2025 @ 10:37 am
Sorry to hear about your friend. But let’s also think about the hundreds of deserving country artists who never had careers because corporate entities such as CMT enforced a major label-centric perspective on the music in a self-perpetuating system that is now imploding as people realize they have better options for their entertainment, and new technologies circumvent outmoded and bloated legacy media.
February 9, 2025 @ 10:16 am
And now all of a sudden my comments are ‘awaiting moderation’.
Really? That’s pretty sad dude.
February 9, 2025 @ 10:34 am
Saving Country Music gets about 300-500 spam comments a day. It can get as much as 150 in an hour. Making sure nobody ever sees these comments is a constant battle, and a strain on resources. If ANYONE’S comments these days are NOT going to moderation immediately, consider yourself lucky. Your comments are not being automatically sent to moderation. That is why this one posted immediately. Why your previous one didn’t, I don’t know. Perhaps there was a spike in spam activity, or something triggered the filter. Either way, it was approved almost immediately.
February 10, 2025 @ 10:18 am
Yeah it seems super strange that a comment with no bad language, controversial opinions or politics got sent to moderation.
February 10, 2025 @ 5:28 pm
Dennis,
The three comments you’ve submitted after the one that got sent to moderation all got posted immediately. So I’m not sure what you’re complaining about here. If I’m trying to stifle your speech, I’m doing a pretty terrible job of it. For the record, I did check with the IT why that comment might have been sent to moderation. They said it might have to do with the length, but they really don’t know. If the spam filter is being overtaxed, it’s going to send all submitted comments to moderation just to be safe.
February 9, 2025 @ 6:34 am
“Jelly Roll’s shake shack preacher sermons complete with alligator tears for an award nobody gives a $hit about” – solid gold. Line of the year right there, Trig!
February 9, 2025 @ 7:52 am
God is “GOOD” !!!!
February 9, 2025 @ 9:19 am
For me, the sad part is knowing that this used to be the Music City News and TNN Awards, which were always entertaining and celebrated the best of country music. If an attempt is made to revive the CMT Awards, ditch the video awards focus, change the title and award design (and please…no giant, silver pepper mills), and come up with a true, fair, fan-voted model. Obviously, we have moved beyond a music publication, but surely they can come up with a way to make it work. Perhaps develop a nominations process and poll fans at CMA Fest to determine winners…no flooding the internet with votes, or 17 nominations for Beyonce.
February 10, 2025 @ 4:43 pm
This reminds me of a post I saw online about what are cultural things that millenials and Gen x’rs experienced that younger people wouldn’t understand. One of them was “you just watched what was on TV. You didn’t get to choose what you wanted to watch.” I remember cable TV as being a luxury my parents could not afford. I would have loved to watch TNN in the 90’s rather than only getting copied VHS tapes of the Dukes of Hazzard.
February 9, 2025 @ 9:00 pm
Exactly WHAT does that drivel mean,rano ?