When CBS said it would have some country stars for an April 5 special, it wasn’t kidding.
The list, announced this morning (March 26), seems to include most of Nashville and beyond. It has top country stars – Luke Bryan (shown here), Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton and more – and even adds pop stars, including John Legend, Sheryl Crow, Brandi Carlisle and Gwen Stefani.
That will be 8 p.m. on April 5. The Academy of Country Music awards were originally scheduled then, but they’ve been pushed back to Sept. 16, with Keith Urban hosting.
Filling part of the void will be “ACM Presents: Our Country.” People will perform from home and offer memories, spiced by clips from past ACM shows. A similar show (9 p.m. March 29, Fox) will have Elton John hosting, with at-home performances from pop stars. A week after that, the country performers will include:
– Bryan, Brad Paisley and Darius Rucker, doing a tribute to Kenny Rogers, who died March 20 at 81.
– Other combinations. It will be Shelton and Stefani, Kane Brown and Legend.
– Several groups – Old Dominion, Lady Antebellum, Little Big Town and Florida Georgia Line.
– And lots of individuals – Urban, Underwood, Crow, Carlisle, Kelsea Ballerini, Dierks Bentley, Miranda Lambert, Eric Church, Luke Combs, Tim McGraw, Thomas Rhett and Shania Twain.