The People’s Choice Awards, and the already crowded field of country music award shows, is expanding.
NBCUniversal will kick off the People’s Choice Country Awards in September. The awards, the first leg of the long-running People’s Choice Awards, will take place at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and will air on NBC and Peacock. NBCU owns the People’s Choice brand and made an equity investment in Opry Entertainment Group (along with venture capital firm Atairos) last year.
“We are excited to partner with the Grand Ole Opry to bring the biggest country music celebration of the year to Nashville,” said Cassandra Tryon, senior vice president of live events for NBCUniversal Television & Streaming. “Country fans are passionate about their music and there’s no better place to host this event than from the biggest stage in country music.”
The People’s Choice Awards have several music categories, including country artist of the year (Carrie Underwood won in 2022), but their main focus has long been film and television.
The People’s Choice Country Awards will join the CMA Awards (broadcast on ABC), the Academy of Country Music Awards (on Amazon Prime Video) and the CMT Music Awards (on CBS and the show’s eponymous cable channel). The two-hour show will feature the usual mix of live performances and collaborations, honorary trophies and winners selected by country music fans.
Den of Thieves will produce the awards show, with Jesse Ignjatovic, Evan Prager and Barb Bialkowski serving as executive producers.
