Thomas Rhett, Kelsea Ballerini To Return As Hosts Of ‘CMA Fest’ TV Special

Thomas Rhett and Kelsea Ballerini are teaming up for the second year and returning as hosts of CMA Fest, the three-hour TV special that brings country’s Ultimate Fan Experience to a national television audience. “CMA Fest” will air Wednesday, Aug. 8 at 8/7c on ABC, and is executive produced by Robert Deaton.

Filmed this week during CMA Fest, the television special will feature more than 25 of country’s biggest names as they hit the stage during the four-day event. 2018 marks the 15th consecutive year of the broadcast, a feat no other U.S. music festival has achieved. Last year’s broadcast of CMA Fest achieved three-year ratings highs.

“This year’s CMA Fest is our biggest yet, with many artists debuting full festival sets on the Nissan Stadium stage,” said Sarah Trahern, CMA Chief Executive Officer. “We’re thrilled once again to broadcast ‘CMA Fest’ and bring the festival to millions of country music fans not only here in the U.S. but all around the world.”

“Thomas and Kelsea are the embodiment of the summer fun that is CMA Fest, and we are so excited they’ll be back for year two,” said Rob Mills, ABC Entertainment Senior Vice President, Alternative Series, Specials & Late-Night Programming.

Thomas Rhett returns to host CMA Fest for a third year, first hosting the special in 2016. Ballerini will perform at Nissan Stadium June 9, in addition to appearing as Artist of the Day at Xfinity Fan Fair X June 10. A limited number of four-day tickets for the nightly concerts at Nissan Stadium, which also includes four-day access to Xfinity Fan Fair X, are still available at CMAfest.com/tickets or through the CMA Box Office at 1-800-CMA-FEST.

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Lorie Hollabaugh

Hollabaugh, a staff writer at MusicRow magazine, has over 20 years of music business experience and has written for publications including American Profile, CMA Close Up, Nashville Arts And Entertainment, The Boot and Country Weekly. She has a Broadcast Journalism and Speech Communication degree from Texas Christian University, (go Horned Frogs), and welcomes your feedback or story ideas at lhollabaugh@musicrow.com.

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