CBS and AMAs Reach 5-Year Deal as Live Events Strike a Chord With Viewers

The American Music Awards and CBS don’t want to miss a beat.

Following the AMAs’ return to CBS in 2025, CBS and Dick Clark Productions (DCP) are announcing a new 5-year partnership to keep the show on the network and Paramount+, with the agreement kicking in for the 52nd AMAs in May 2026, live from Las Vegas.

The American Music Awards have gone on a rollercoaster the last few years. After airing on ABC in 2022, the show didn’t make it back to broadcast until CBS’s 2025 showing. The ceremony was absent for 2023, and 2024 brought a 50th anniversary special, which CBS aired in October.

However, CBS reports that the 2025 show, hosted by Jennifer Lopez, brought “over 10 million unique viewers” across its premiere on Memorial Day, Monday, May 26, and through encores on MTV, CMT, and BET in the days after. The network reported the largest audience for the show since 2019, which it says was up 38% from the 2022 airing on ABC.

The announcement further showcases the media industry’s push towards live events, which have become even more important in the TV upfront, along with the continued rise in sports.

Speaking to ADWEEK in May, Paramount ads chief John Halley noted the “power of live tentpoles” amid times of economic uncertainty.

“Sports and tentpole investments remain priorities,” Halley said. “They are used by brands to stay culturally relevant, even through more challenging periods, especially with Gen Z and Millennial audiences.”

In addition to helping brands stay culturally relevant, live award shows have continued to perform in the ratings despite the ongoing decline of linear TV.

In March, Disney’s broadcast of the 97th Oscars reached a five-year high, growing to 19.7 million viewers with the added support of streaming on Hulu. And though CBS’s most recent broadcast of the Grammys was down more than 1 million viewers year over year, it still averaged 15.4 million.