It’s the ever-present shame of actual country music fans out there who must witness what passes for “country music” in the minds of corporate stooges when it’s featured on a national stage. That’s been the routine ever since CBS started setting up cameras in Nashville in 2021, and broadcasting a live New Years Eve special for the Central time zone.
The so-called “Nashville Big Bash” has always featured a few good acts, lots of pretty terrible ones, and some stuff in-between. But this year felt especially clownish after they buffoonishly mismanaged a technical glitch, and set a new low with the public when looking through the sentiments of online comments and the ratings numbers.
There were some bright spots. It’s always great to see Dwight Yoakam getting some love on the screen, especially in close proximity to the Country Music Hall of Fame that continues to stiff him. Same goes for Zach Top, though the song he performed “I Never Lie” felt distinctly like last year’s hit.
Ditto for Stephen Wilson Jr.’s rendition of “Stand By Me.” Yes, it’s a super powerful and emotive performance, but he’s already done that bit on national television now half a dozen times. You can only saw the lady in half so much before the crowd catches on.
And CeCe Winans was also killer. The Gospel star was a much better diversity pick compared to Breland or Jimmie Allen who they’ve had on that show in previous years. But the Big Bash organizers still seem somewhat clueless that there are actual Black artists who make actual country music who can be entertaining to a wide audience as opposed to scraping the bottom of the barrel of the mainstream just to find a Black performer, and treat them like a token.
But aside from a few bright spots, the hosts Hardy and Bert Kreisher were neither funny nor entertaining. Bert can be funny, but seem weighted down by Hardy, who seems to have gained as much weight as Jelly Roll has lost, and has the camera presence of a potted fern.
Bailey Zimmerman is truly a national embarrassment, and a poster boy for the epidemic of mediocrity. TEMU Morgan Wallen had no business being featured in prime time. Putting Keith Urban and Rascal Flatts on the presentation felt so stale, especially with the piped-in crowd applause and fake enthusiasm from the audience inside the clubs. It’s 2025. Nobody falls for that plastic banana stuff.
What passed for the evening’s big stars were Lainey Wilson and Jason Aldean. But despite Lainey’s trophy for Entertainer of the Year, she’s arguably the 3rd most popular woman in country behind Ella Langley and Megan Moroney, and in a genre that barely pays attention to women. In the decentralized culture we live in now, people might recognize these names, but they’re far from superstars, especially with the political polarization surrounding someone like Jason Aldean.
But where the 2025 Nashville Big Bash lost the audience both figuratively and literally is when about 45 minutes in, the entire presentation went dark for over a dozen minutes right in the middle of a Lainey Wilson performance. Hey, technical glitches happen, and sometimes are completely out of the control of production staffs. Co-host Bert Kreisher later said they “lost power.”
But it was CBS’s extremely strange decision to cut into the middle of a rerun of the new Matlock series starring Kathy Bates that sent the moment completely off the rails. The few million country music folks who’d tuned into the presentation all of a sudden saw themselves staring at two Asian lesbians in some sort of heated, sexually erotic discussion for what felt like an eternity with no context of why it was on their screens, and no real indication they were even watching a scene from the new Matlock reboot.
#cbsNashvilleNYE
— Up Reality Alley (@uprealityalley) January 1, 2026
Wow! Country music sure has changed. What a letdown. From Lainey to Dwight to Brooks & Dunn to Hardy to swinging lesbians. How times have changed. #NewYear2026 pic.twitter.com/BXA8POiblB
Sure, New Years TV specials are mostly for shut-ins, wine moms waiting for their teenagers to get home from the party in one piece, and workaholics who stay home to finish their “Most Anticipated Albums for 2026” posts so it’s ready by Jan 1. But ABC’s Dick Clark New Year’s special actually saw record numbers, with ratings up 35% from last year and 255% higher than the CBS Nashville Big Bash, probably because so many fled to it from CBS.
CBS and Nashville are trying to approach the Nashville Big Bash like one big infomercial for Nashville, and that’s why it feels flawed, forced, and weak. Nobody’s going to put on a space diaper and stand for 12 straight hours like they do in Times Square to see Baily Zimmerman perform.
Country music is hot right now and boasts a lot of great stars of the present and past. But if it wants to compete, it needs to be a real, authentic presentation that represents America’s overlooked heartland.
Stop coaching the club audiences to act hyper excited to see Gretchen Wilson perform “Redneck Woman” for the millionth time, find some hosts who are actually funny, and present artists whose music is actually resonating with the public as opposed to who major labels are trying push upon the masses.
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