The Academy of Country Music Awards, the longest-running country music awards show, will make history on Monday as the first major awards show to be exclusively livestreamed. The 57th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards will be hosted by Dolly Parton at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas and will be streamed live on Prime Video from 8 p.m. ET/5 PT in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
Monday's awards are also a return to Las Vegas after being forced to film primarily west coast shows in Nashville over the past two years. Academy of Country Music CEO Damon Whiteside says the pandemic allowed the organization to rethink how they operate and market to fans.
Whiteside debuted with ACM in January 2020, a few months before COVID-19 forced the April 2020 awards in Las Vegas to be postponed to September in Nashville. Whiteside says the team immediately changed from a live and in-person awards show to a pre-taped, at-home show called "ACM Presents: Our Country." The show came together over three weeks and featured performances by country artists at home or on a tour bus.
Months later, ACM decided to move the awards to Nashville in an effort to keep the artists safe. For the first time in the history of the awards, the show was filmed in multiple locations in Nashville.
"What that taught us was how much heart we could have on the show," Whiteside tells me. "We've had 'Party of the Year' as our tagline, but [the awards] showed we can put fans to rest with heartwarming performances from the cast."
After another Nashville ACM Awards in 2021, news came that ACM would not be renewing its television deal with CBS. This decision led the organization to have "really interesting meetings with a lot of different potential partners in the television and streaming space," Whiteside says.
“One of the goals given to me by my board was that we need to think about the future of an awards show,” he says. "The format itself is getting a little tired and fan engagement is starting to drop."
Whiteside says "everything clicked" during a meeting with Amazon. “Strategically, we were all on the same page and have the same goals,” he says, adding that there is a huge crossover with the country music fan base and the Amazon customer base. "It was a match made in heaven and it allowed us to completely change the format of the show."
Whiteside says the ACM team was challenged to think out-of-the-box in partnership with Prime Video. As a result, the three-hour pre-awards show was shortened to two hours without any commercials. The ACM Awards will also be streamed live in five countries, allowing the show to reach a global scale for the first time.
"With respect to every other award, I think it's allowed us to really get ahead of them all in the sense that now we can take a lot more risks and we can really change the format, and, I think , become more attractive to fans,” he says. “In our research, we consistently see that fans actually think content programming on streaming platforms is more interesting than broadcast television.”
Whiteside says this year's show will be an educational process for everyone involved. One of the major tasks at hand is explaining to country fans how they can access the show. Viewers can gain access through an existing Prime account or sign up for a 30-day trial by visiting the Amazon Prime Video homepage on March 7th at 8PM ET.
The show streams at 8PM ET with Parton as host. Whiteside says the country legend was an obvious first choice because she appeals to everyone. “She is such a pioneer in her own right and she is always at the fore of technology,” Whiteside says of the Country Hall of Famer. “We thought he and his team would grasp this opportunity and how big it is for him to be the face of the awards show for the first time and the first to crossover.”
A major mission of the Academy is how it serves newcomers to the genre. Well, the 2021 ACM New Male Artist of the Year Jimmy Allen and the 2021 ACM New Female Artist of the Year Gabby Barrett will co-host. That mission is further exemplified through this year's nominations as 31 artists and industry producers received their first ACM Awards nominations in 2022.
"It was really exciting to see the industry recognize artists who weren't nominated before," Whiteside says. “I think it says a lot about the industry right now and the fact that we are hungry to grow the tent of country music and bring more artists under the tent.
“There are more opportunities now than ever for artists with digital platforms, so I think because of that, and the fact that streaming is growing so much, it is allowing more artists to be discovered.”
With countless new and seasoned artist collaborations at upcoming awards shows, many newcomers will find themselves in the limelight and on the ACM Awards stage for the first time.
"There's going to be some heartwarming moments like we've had over the years, but it's definitely going to be a return to the party," Whiteside says. "I can't wait to hear from our international fans that Super is not served with country content and I think [the ACM Awards streaming on Prime Video] is going to be a game changer for them."