CMT Confirms Date for 2021 CMT Music Awards

The CMT Music Awards will return to their usual date in June this year, with the annual show set to take place on Wednesday, June 9 at 8 p.m. ET on CMT. The CMT Music Awards are the country music industry’s only entirely fan-voted awards show.

The 2020 awards were pushed to October due to the pandemic and were filmed without an audience from locations around Nashville. This year’s show appears to potentially have the same setup, with a press release promising that the night will deliver “two-and-a-half hours of nonstop performances and one-of-a-
kind collaborations in and around Music City.” The 2020 show was hosted by Kane Brown and Sarah Hyland, and hosts, performers and more for 2021 will be announced in May.

Carrie Underwood was last year’s big winner, taking home Video of the Year and Female Video of the Year for “Drinking Alone.” Underwood now has 22 career wins at the show, continuing her reign as the most-awarded artist in CMT Music Awards history, a record she originally set in 2014 when she picked up her 10th trophy. Over the past year, the Oklahoma native has released two albums — her Christmas album My Gift and gospel album My Savior — and has a chance to add to her tally.

The CMT Music Awards typically take place the night before CMA Fest begins in Nashville, but the 2021 festival was canceled due to the pandemic, marking the second year in a row the event will not take place.

“We know our fans near and far have hoped that the festival could safely return this summer, and while we are encouraged to see COVID-19 vaccines becoming more widely available, we still face several challenges that prevent us from bringing our fans around the world the CMA Fest experience they have come to expect,” the Country Music Association previously said in a statement. “But rest assured, we have already started planning what will be the most EPIC celebration of Country Music next summer.” The 2022 festival is scheduled to take place June 9-12.

The 2021 CMT Music Awards will air on CMT on Wednesday, June 9 at 8 p.m. ET. Simulcast networks will be announced at a later date.