Early history

Beginning in 1967, the Music City News Awards were presented yearly by the now—defunct Music City News magazine.^{[citation needed]} In 1988, The Nashville Network (TNN) began a fan—voted awards show dubbed the Viewers' Choice Awards to help the network celebrate its fifth anniversary.^{[citation needed]} In 1990, the two awards shows merged to become the TNN/Music City News Country Awards.^{[citation needed]} TNN's contract with Music City News ended in 1999, and the magazine ceased publication shortly thereafter.^{[citation needed]}

Country Weekly became the presenting sponsor of the awards show in 2000, and the show was known as Country Weekly presents the TNN Music Awards.^{[citation needed]}

2001—2021

In 2001, as TNN began to phase out its association with country music, the decision was made to shift the awards show to sister network CMT.^{[citation needed]} The 2001 show, known as the TNN/CMT Country Weekly Music Awards, was simulcast on both networks.^{[citation needed]}

When the show moved permanently to CMT, Country Weekly ended its brief association with the production.^{[citation needed]} During this era, viewers voted for the nominees by telephone or mail in traditional categories such as "Entertainer of the Year," "Male/Female Artist of the Year," "Song of the Year," etc.^{[citation needed]} Most of the categories mirrored those on the CMA Awards and ACM Awards, except all awards were fan—voted^{[citation needed]}.

The awards show was completely retooled in 2002 as the CMT Flameworthy Video Music Awards, named for the network's branding concept at the time for its most popular videos. The "Flameworthy" name was coined by program development vice president Kaye Zusmann, and aimed to symbolize the waving of lighters or similar lights at concerts (this was before the current negative meaning of the word flaming from the Internet became more commonplace).^{[citation needed]} The show became more production—based, rather than awards—based, and was modeled after sister network MTV's Video Music Awards. In the process, the traditional awards were shifted to specifically honor the music videos of country artists.^[2]

The show included several non—traditional categories highlighting especially funny, sexy, and patriotic videos; however, these categories were phased out over the years.^[3] The show further differentiated itself from the CMA Awards and ACM Awards by showcasing bluegrass performers such as Alison Krauss and Earl Scruggs.^[2]

In 2003, the show was moved to April but returned to June in 2009 to coincide with the CMA Music Festival (the renamed "Fan Fair") and the influx of tourists to Nashville as well as capitalize on a time when many of the artists would already be in Nashville at once.^{[citation needed]}

The name of the show was changed to the CMT Music Awards in 2005.^[4]

In 2020, the awards were delayed until October due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with that year's CMA Fest not going forward.^{[citation needed]} Initially planned for October 14, a scheduling conflict with that year's Billboard Music Awards caused the ceremony to be pushed back to October 21.^{[citation needed]}

2021—present

On June 28, 2021, ViacomCBS (now known as Paramount Global) announced that the awards would move to broadcast television on sister network CBS and shift back to April beginning in 2022. ^[5][6] The ceremony's new scheduling would jettison the Academy of County Music Awards, which also had been typically held in April and historically broadcast by CBS; the network subsequently declined to renew its contract to air the ACM Awards, citing declining viewership in comparison to increased rights fees demanded by Dick Clark Productions.^[7][8][9]

In 2023, after more than twenty years in Nashville, the CMT Music Awards were hosted for the first time at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas.^[10][11][12]

By category

• Video of the Year: Carrie Underwood; ten wins^[14]
• Male Video of the Year: Kenny Chesney; five wins^[15]
• Female Video of the Year: Carrie Underwood; eight wins^[14]
• Collaborative Video of the Year: Carrie Underwood; four wins
• CMT Performance of the Year: Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean (tie); two wins each^[14]