The People’s Choice Awards — and the already crowded field of country music awards shows — are expanding.
NBCUniversal will inaugurate the People’s Choice Country Awards in September. The awards, the first offshoot of the long-running People’s Choice Awards, will take place at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville and 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’re excited to partner with the Grand Ole Opry to bring the year’s biggest celebration in country music to Nashville,” said Cassandra Tryon, senior vp live events at NBCUniversal Television & Streaming. “Country fans are passionate about their music, and there’s no better place to host this event than from country music’s biggest stage.”
The People’s Choice Awards has several music categories, including country artist of the year (Carrie Underwood won in 2022), but its primary focus has long been movies and television.
The People’s Choice Country Awards will join the CMA Awards (broadcast by ABC), the Academy of Country Music Awards (on Amazon’s Prime Video) and the CMT Music Awards (on CBS and the show’s namesake cable outlet). 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 executive producing.
