ACMs Boss Talks Extended Show Length and Las Vegas Return Ahead of 2026 Ceremony

The ACM Awards are returning to their roots in 2026. In an interview with Billboard, the Academy of Country Music CEO Damon Whiteside explained why the ceremony is moving back to Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena after its three years in Frisco, Texas.

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“It just feels like the place for a show like this and it does kind of tie back a little bit to our West Coast roots,” Whiteside told the outlet of the Los Angeles-founded Academy. “I’ve been hearing a lot of feedback from artists and the industry. They’re just super excited.”

“It’s like, ‘Oh, we can’t wait to go back to Vegas again. We can’t wait to be at the MGM again,’” he added. “I think it’s fun for the artists to be able to hang out.”

While the May 17 ceremony is a return to tradition in many ways, it will break the mold in others. For one, the ACMs are continuing last year’s expanded length, making the show two-and-a-half hours instead of the traditional two-hour ceremony.

“I pushed for it simply because we want to have room for more performances and more artists,” Whiteside said. “It’s good to have the extra time.”

“But Prime Video really made the decision that they wanted to continue with that length because they felt that the fans loved it,” he added. “It still feels much shorter than the traditional broadcast award show that’s three hours, and we’re so light on our commercial load that’s it’s mostly wall-to-wall music.”

What’s New at the 2026 ACM Awards

Unlike in years past, the 2026 ceremony with not include a New Duo or Group category. That’s because there were not enough qualified candidates submitted.

“An artist or an act needs to submit to be considered for a category, so there’s always some cases where, especially in the new categories, that they choose not to submit in a given year because they may want to wait until they have even more going on because you can only be nominated twice in the category,” Whiteside explained. “We expect it will be back next year.”

As for the people who are nominated, Megan Moroney leads the pack with nine nods. Miranda Lambert earned eight nominations, Ella Langley and Lainey Wilson nabbed seven each, and Chris Stapleton is up for six awards.

“You look across the board at all nominees, it’s definitely heavily leaning toward a lot of relatively newer acts in a lot of ways, which is awesome to see,” Whiteside said. “There’s just a whole new, exciting crop of artists that are being recognized by the ACMs.”

“From a voter perspective, we tend to be the first to recognize an artist in their career,” he added. “It’s cool because you hear from a lot of legends that an ACM was their first award.”

The 61st Academy of Country Music Awards will air live on Prime Video Sunday, May 17, at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT.

Photo courtesy of The Academy of Country Music