The ACM Awards Is Returning For Its 61st Year
The 60th Annual ACM Awards were held on May 8, 2025 at the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas. The Academy has announced that the show is returning for its 61st year.
While we don’t know very many details, we do know when it will take place and where!
When Are 2026 ACM Awards?
The 61st Annual ACM Awards will take place on Sunday, May 17, 2026.
From 2023-2025, the awards show was held in the month of May, while in 2022, the show took place earlier in the year on March 7. In 2021, the show was held on April 18 and the 2020 show was on September 16.
From 2008-2019, the ACMs were held in April, and for several years before that, the show took place in May.
This year’s broadcast will be on a Sunday, but in years past the show has been held on a weeknight.
Where Will The 2026 ACM Awards Be Held?
The 2026 ACM Awards will take place at the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas after being held at the Star in Frisco for three years.
CEO of the Academy of Country Music, Damon Whiteside, said in a statement, “We couldn’t be more thrilled to return to MGM Grand for the 61st ACM Awards next May, a place that holds a lot of history and special memories for the Academy. It truly feels like a homecoming for us. There’s no better place to host an exciting, global country music celebration than fabulous Las Vegas!”
The MGM Grand Garden Arena was home to the ACM Awards from 2006-2014, again in 2016, and 2018-2019.
After hosting so many other awards shows like the Billboard Music Awards, the Latin Grammy Awards, and the iHeartRadio Music Festival, the MGM Grand Garden Arena is the perfect location for a music awards ceremony.
The 2026 show host has not been named, so we will have to wait for another announcement! Reba McEntire has hosted for the past two years and 18 in total.
According to Billboard, she will tie Bon Hope’s record for “hosting or co-hosting the most iterations of a major awards show” if she hosts one more time, seeing as Hope hosted the Oscars 19 times.
Amazon Prime Video will stream the show for thr fourth year in a row.
See the ACM’s exciting announcement below!
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