CMA Awards Night Guide: Lainey Wilson Hosts November 18, Ella Langley Leads With Nine Nominations

Thirteen days out, country's biggest night has a stage plan and a scoreboard. This is the page to keep open on November 18.

When the CMA Awards start, where they're held, and how to watch

• When: Wednesday, November 18, 2026, live 8–11 p.m. ET.
• Where: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville.
• Watch: ABC and Disney+ live; Hulu the next day.
• Host: Lainey Wilson, for the third straight year.
• The occasion: the 60th CMA Awards — six decades of this show, which the Country Music Association is leaning into hard.

Who performs

The first round, announced November 5: Ella Langley, Miranda Lambert, Tim McGraw, Cody Johnson, Kacey Musgraves, The Red Clay Strays, Zach Top and Tucker Wetmore — plus a special tribute to Dolly Parton, with the tribute's performers still unannounced. More names are coming before the night; our companion piece has the eight ranked by what they could carry home.

Who leads the nominations going into the night

Nominations were revealed September 10, for music released in the eligibility window of July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. The leaders:

• Ella Langley — 9 nominations, the most of anyone: Entertainer of the Year, Album of the Year for Dandelion, Female Vocalist, two apiece in Single and Song, plus Musical Event and Music Video.
• Miranda Lambert — 7 nominations, most of them earned standing next to Langley — co-writer on "Choosin' Texas," co-producer of Dandelion. Her career total reaches 70 CMA nominations, the most by any female artist in the show's history.
• Kacey Musgraves — 5. Songwriter-producer Ben West — 5.
• Cody Johnson, Chris Stapleton and Stephen Wilson Jr. — 4 each (per The Tennessean's count of the ballot).
• Thirteen artists are first-time nominees this year.

Winners are chosen by the CMA's voting membership — 7,083 eligible voters this cycle, per industry reporting. This is a jury of the business itself, which is why the room treats these trophies the way it does.

Entertainer of the Year is the race that decides the night

Entertainer of the Year is the last envelope, and this year's field is a genuine argument: Luke Combs, Cody Johnson, Ella Langley, Chris Stapleton and Lainey Wilson — the host is also a nominee, which makes her the only person who can hand herself the biggest trophy of the night.

One more name to watch on the ballot: Taylor Swift is nominated for Single of the Year ("I Knew It, I Knew You") — her first CMA nominations since 2022. Whether she attends is unconfirmed by the CMA and not claimed here; the nomination itself is the fact.

The storylines sharing one stage on November 18

Sixty years in, the show has set itself a tidy storyline: its most-nominated artist ever among women (Lambert, 70) sharing a stage with its current leader (Langley, 9), a Hall of Famer fresh from induction (McGraw, inducted in October), a tribute to Dolly Parton, and a host trying to win the top prize at her own party. Whatever order the envelopes fall in, that's a night. We'll file the winners as they land.