The 54th annual Country Music Association (CMA) Awards were held live in Nashville on Wednesday night, hosted by Reba McEntire and Darius Rucker. Although McEntire hosted the coveted awards show last year alongside Dolly Parton and Carrie Underwood, this was Rucker’s first time. The three-hour event on ABC was packed full of performances, leaving very little time for the duo’s jokes… which turned out to be a good thing, in our opinion.
The show started off with a star-studded tribute performance to Charlies Daniels, then the hosts took the center (socially-distanced) stage. The funniest moment of the opening monologue was when McEntire warned her new boyfriend, CSI: Miami star Rex Linn, to “stay six feet away from Carrie Underwood” at all times; noting “that’s not social distancing, those are Reba rules!”
The pair also addressed the current pandemic and tried to focus on messages of unity. However, they were quick to take a jab at Morgan Wallen’s recent trouble; Rucker quipped “for your safety, I just want everybody to know that I’ve had Morgan Wallen quarantine in my dressing room for two weeks now.” To which McEntire replied, “I don’t think you’re going to get your deposit back on that dressing room.” We think it was a bit of a low blow, considering the New Artist of the Year winner is going through a lot right now and doesn’t necessarily need to be reminded of it on national television. He’s trying to move on from that, and we should to. Unity, right?!
Luckily the night was full of performances and presenters from beginning to end, leaving hardly any room for the dynamic duo to say much else. But hey, “Fancy” still got her outfit changes in at every commercial break! Needless to say, we love ourselves some Reba and Hootie, but these two just couldn’t live up to the long legacy of Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley. We’re curious to see if the two will return next year for the 55th annual awards show or if the CMA Awards is going to go in a (yet another) different direction.
