ACA Awards 2011 – Eric’s Review

Now with a second year under its belt, the American Country Awards seem to be here to stay.  Do they need to?  In my opinion they're tied for third place in country award shows with the CMT Video Music Awards.  I have found good and bad things about them, especially after watching last night's broadcast. 

I'll start with the bad, because there's a lot.  All night I wanted to call this show "The Spoiler Alert Awards."  Did you notice that they would frequently promomote who was singing in the next segment, then when they presented an award, one of the nominees would be who they just promoted.  For example, "Up next, Scotty McCreery performs and we present the award for best new artist."  SPOILER ALERT: Scotty's gonna win.  This goes with my next dislike of the ACA's, cutting to the winner's performance right after they are announced as the winner.  Obviously they've been notified ahead of time that they won.  I HATE that.  It just takes away the spontaneous tears (by the winner or loser).  I'm just not a fan.  Also, what's up with all the awards?  I love all the crazy categories like "Best Video Male," "Best Single By a Group or Collaboration," "Best Album Art Drawn By a Pet Of a Female Artist," etc, but why have a two hour show where you still only present about 7 or 8 of them?

Finally, I love Kristin Chenoweth.  I really do.  She's a funny actress.  She is great on her "Glee" guest spots.  She's also got an amazing voice, which she used on Broadway in one of the biggest musicals ever, "Wicked."  That being said, she's a good co-host with Trace Adkins, but PLEASE, Kristin, stay away from singing country music.  You come off cheesy and forced.  Still think you're awesome though.

Now, my "Like" list is not nearly as long, but I did enjoy seeing some big awards being won by Jason Aldean, Chris Young, and Thompson Square.  These are all folks that struggle to get air time on the other award shows and are deserving no matter the size of the show.  I also have a love-hate relationship with fan voting, but I think overall, they did a good job of picking the winners last night.

Again, I'm not sure we need another country award show, but if we have to have one, I'm glad they kept this one to two hours and kept the Fox cross promotion to a minimum.  Did you watch the awards?  What did you li