Entertainment NOW

2 | Cover story TV Media Weekly | December 8 - 14, 2012 Fox goes country American Country Awards speak for the fans By Rebecca Potter TV Media addle up for a night of great country music performers and entertainers during the third annual American Country Awards, airing on Monday, Dec. 10, on Fox. The American Country Awards honor the biggest and best in country music with voting directly from the fans. Unlike other music award shows, the ACAs let fans voice their opinions on things like performance by including categories such as Touring Artist of the Year. Tony- and Emmyaward winner Kristen Chenoweth and multi-platinum recording artist and country music great Trace Adkins will return to host the two-hour live event from Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Plenty of country music's best will be performing that night, including Kip Moore, Jake Owen, Jason Aldean, Lady Antebellum, Dierks Bentley, Luke Bryan and Little Big Town. As if that isn't enough, Miranda Lambert, Natasha Bedingfield, Ron White, Scotty McCreery, Lauren Alaina, Casey James, LeAnn Rimes, Lee Brice, Jana Kramer, Dustin Lynch, Chris Young and champion cowboy Trevor Brazile are all scheduled to appear. Rascal Flatts are also set to perform as the most awarded country music group in the last decade, and while they won the Decade Award for the inaugural American Country Awards, they have since been nominated seven times. This year, the best-selling country vocal group is nominated in four different categories. Singer/songwriter Luke Bryan is currently nominated for seven American Country Awards, while Lady Antebellum and the Zac Brown Band each have six nominations, and Eric Church and Taylor Swift received five nominations. The Song of the Year category has been added to this year's S American Country Awards to better promote both talented musicians and songwriters. The nominees for Song of the Year are "A Woman Like You," by Brice, "Fly Over States" and "Tattoos on This Town," by Aldean, "Red Solo Cup," by Toby Keith, and "Springsteen," by Church. The list of candidates for each category was determined by five different media companies: BigChampagne, for record sales and media consumption; Great American Country, for video airplay; Mediabase, for radio airplay; Pollstar, for touring information; and the Nashville Songwriters Association International. The choices this year for Artist of the Year are Aldean, Bryan, Lady Antebellum, Swift and the Zac Brown Band. Host Adkins is no newbie to awards, with his total album sales figuring at more than 10 million — many of which have gone platinum — and he's an accomplished television personality, too. Some of his hits include "Just Fishin'", "You're Gonna Miss This" and "All I Ask For Anymore." Adkins is a member of the Grand Ole Opry, but he's also a former Grammy nominee and is currently on tour supporting his 10th studio album, called "Proud To Be Here." "The ACAs honor the best and brightest of country music, from the hotshot breakthrough artists to the icons," said Adkins. "I'm looking forward to cutting loose again with Kristin, who's quite the firecracker comedienne, while we also take viewers through an evening of great music and awards." Known to many as Glinda the Good Witch in Broadway's "Wicked" and April from Fox's hit show "Glee," Chenoweth is an all-around success story. She won a Tony for her role in "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" and on top of her two Emmy nominations for Glee, Chenoweth won an Emmy for her role as Olive Snook in "Push- CHANNEL GUIDE

• Cover