‘New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash’ Runs Into Technical Issues, Cuts Off Lainey Wilson’s Performance

New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash kicked off with a bang tonight, complete with an opening performance from Lainey Wilson. Dwight Yoakam also hit the stage, along with Brooks & Dunn, HARDY, and Keith Urban. However, when Wilson hit the stage again for a stunning performance of “Wild Horses” and “Wildflowers”, viewers at home were surprised to see the performance get cut short.

So strange…. #cbsNashvilleNYE cut in the middle of a Lainey Wilson song and hadn’t come back. Hope everything’s okay. pic.twitter.com/QNuzDROwLX

— Maria Amoruso (@MariaWAmoruso) January 1, 2026

A series of commercials appeared, cutting off Wilson’s performance. Then, after the commercials wrapped, an episode of the legal drama Matlock began to play. From there, another series of commercials began to play.

Viewers on social media, of course, were not particularly happy about the interruption.

@CBS What the fuck are you guys doing? Trying to watch the Nashville Big Bash and its jumping all over the place. Was watching Lainey Wilson perform and it froze then a news ad and then Matlock then back to ads. What the hell???

— Ryder (@ryderjj89) January 1, 2026

@CBS how y’all do Lainey Wilson like that during one of her best songs ? 😩

— Amanda (@AmandaJ1988_) January 1, 2026

@CBS what happened to the New Year’s Nashville Bash? It cut out during Lainey Wilson singing, went to commercial & now some CBS show is playing!!

— Jen (@therealjustjen) January 1, 2026

Eventually, the show kicked on again, opening with a performance from Gretchen Wilson. The night’s host, Bert Kreischer, noted that they “lost power” in Nashville, but everything should continue to go smoothly for the rest of New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash.

Photo by Jason Davis/Getty Images