The CMT Music Awards will no longer air on the channel they’re named after. ViacomCBS announced Monday that next year’s show will air exclusively on CBS.
A date for the show has not been set. As the name suggests, the awards show has previously aired on ViacomCBS’ country music cable channel CMT.
For the 2022 event, CMT will kick off the company’s first-ever Country Music Week by hosting week-long special programming and events capped by exclusive director’s cut airings of the Awards later on CMT and various ViacomCBS platforms.
The CMT news comes as CBS is negotiating with Dick Clark Productions to renew its contract to keep the Academy of Country Music Awards, which are set for next April from Las Vegas. As TheWrap reported, CBS has balked at a staggering demand of $22 million a year.
CBS, which has aired the ACM Awards since 1998, declined to counter the $22 million demand to renew its deal, according to two individuals with knowledge of the negotiations. The insiders said the new price was well above the previous $20 million annual price for a show that has lost almost half of its viewership since 2018.
As a result of CBS’ response, Dick Clark Productions and MRC co-CEOs Modi Wiczyk and Asif Satchu are negotiating with NBC as part of a package deal that would renegotiate the network’s $60 million-a-year Golden Globes contact and extend its deal for the Billboard Music Awards, one insider said. A DCP rep has insisted that the company negotiates each project independently of one another.