Major CMT Show Canceled

A major CMT show is officially ending.

According to Music Row, CMT Hot 20 Countdown is will air its final episode at the end of December.

Hosted by Cody Alan and Carissa Culiner, CMT Hot 20 Countdown premiered in 2013, counting down the 20 hottest country music videos of the week. It also features appearances by country artists. Billboard reports that the series is the last original regular music programming on CMT.

The network has gone through cutbacks in staff and programming over the last year. It even saw the CMT Awards getting put on pause for the first time since its debut in 2002 while parent company Paramount Global merged with Skydance Media.

An exact reason for the cancellation has not been given, but it can be assumed that it is part of the continuing cutbacks. Paramount Global has been doing a lot of cutbacks because of the merger across all departments, and it doesn’t seem like anyone or anything is safe. It’s likely these final episodes of CMT Hot 20 Countdown will go big, but as of now, a date for the final show has not been revealed.

Alan has been on CMT since 2009, doing several TV and radio programs before joining Alecia Davis and Katie Cook on CMT Hot 20 Countdown when it launched in January 2013. The show became an instant fan-favorite for country music lovers, which is why the cancellation comes as a surprise. Culiner, meanwhile, joined in 2022. What will happen next for the hosts is unknown, but Alan has been the morning host on SiriusXM’s The Highway since 2023, so that should be continuing for him.

Whether or not there will be a chance for the series to have a second life elsewhere or back on CMT in the future is unknown, but with this being the last original music program on the network, that doesn’t spell good news. If anything, there are still music programs on CMT, and plenty of other syndicated shows such as Reba, The Golden Girls, The King of Queens, Roseanne, and Yellowstone. For now, fans will have to tune in to the final episodes of CMT Hot 20 Countdown, airing on Saturdays and Sundays at 9 a.m. ET on CMT.