CMA Going Streaming? Dolly Parton Returns To Host First Ever Digital Country Music Awards After 22 Years

Dolly Parton
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - NOVEMBER 13: (FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY) Dolly Parton speaks onstage during the 53rd annual CMA Awards at the Bridgestone Arena on November 13, 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee. Terry Wyatt/Getty Images

Dolly has another big news this week after being nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Academy of Country Music Awards has named country legend Dolly Parton as the host for their first-ever digitally streamed awards ceremony on March 7, 2022 on Prime Video from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

Parton hosted the ACM Awards for the first time in 2000, which was 22 years ago this year.

Hosting experience at CMAs

She does, however, have prior country awards show hosting accolades to her name; she co-hosted the Country Music Association Awards in 2019 with Reba McEntire and Carrie Underwood, and she also presented the CMAs on her own once in 1988.

Parton, being almost unquestionably the most revered person in country music, and maybe in all of music, is a good candidate for hosting material, to put it mildly.

Because of her one-year hosting tenure with the ACMS in 1980, the job has been replaced in succeeding years by Reba McEntire, Luke Bryan, Dierks Bentley, and Keith Urban, either individually or in duos.

Among those who hosted the ACMs last year, for what seemed to be the program's last year in television, were Keith Urban and Mickey Guyton.

Academy of Country Music Awards CEO Damon Whiteside said in a statement (via Variety) that they are "honored to welcome" Dolly Parton back to be the centerpiece of this landmark 57th Academy of Country Music Awards

Whiteside added that there is "no one better than Dolly to represent the ACM Awards brand and country music" on a global scale.

Shift from television to streaming

With the landmark decision of the academy to move to digital streaming, Whiteside also said that they wanted to show worldwide audiences "one of the most exhilarating and innovative shows".

The program will be two hours in length, less than the three hours it was for most of its lengthy run as a major-network broadcast event in the past.

Unlike the usual television broadcasted format, this year's ACM's will be broadcasted on Amazon's streaming service, where it will not be interrupted by commercials, which means there will be more.

The Academy of Country Music Awards is widely recognized as the first major awards ceremony to make the transition to streaming.

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