Blake Shelton, Kelsea Ballerini and Kane Brown will be among the big names performing at the inaugural People’s Choice Country Awards, NBC and Peacock announced Thursday.
The event will air live Sept. 28, at 8 p.m. ET/PT simultaneously on NBC and Peacock from the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tennessee. The two-hour celebration recognizes the best in country music, as voted by fans.
Other announced performers include Carly Pearce, Dan + Shay, HARDY and Jelly Roll. Little Big Town comprised of Jimi Westbrook, Kimberly Schlapman, Karen Fairchild and Phillip Sweet — will host as well as perform a medley of their greatest hits.
Shelton, Ballerini and Brown are all up for the title of The People’s Artist of 2023, as are Lainey Wilson, Luke Combs, Morgan Wallen, Old Dominion and Zach Bryan.
As previously announced, this year’s honorees are “Beer for My Horses” singer Toby Keith, who’ll be presented with the Country Icon Award and Wynonna Judd, who be given the Country Champion Award. Both will take the Grand Ole Opry stage as well to perform.
The livestream will air on Peacock, as well as PCA Twitter, and NBC and E! News’ social media and YouTube accounts, as well as E! Online.
The People’s Choice Country Awards is produced by Den of Thieves. Jesse Ignjatovic, Evan Prager and Barb Bialkowski will executive produce, along with RAC Clark as executive producer and showrunner.
The show is a result of NBCUniversal’s investment in Opry Entertainment Group alongside British private equity firm Atairos. The international deal, which provided bout $239 million for the country music institution, was finalized in April 2022.
The deal allows NBCUniversal and Atairos media rights to the weekly Grand Ole Opry stage show, Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium and radio station WSM-AM and a 50% stake in TV channel Circle, where the Grand Ole Opry shows currently stream.
You can see the full list of categories and nominees online at NBC Insider.
