CBS has signed a new five-year deal with Dick Clark Productions for the American Music Awards to be broadcast on CBS and stream live on Paramount+ starting with the 2026 ceremony, which will once again be held on Memorial Day weekend in Las Vegas.
The pact comes at an opportune time for DCP as CBS is looking for a broad, tentpole music awards show to replace the Grammys which are set to leave the network after the 2026 edition for Disney/ABC. (CBS also has the country-focused CMT Music Awards.) The deal builds on CBS and DCP’s existing relationship over the Golden Globes and comes on the heels of solid ratings performance for the 2025 AMAs.
The AMAs are following a similar path to the one CBS and DCP took with the Golden Globes where a one-off deal for the 2024 ceremony also led to a five-year agreement. That five-year Globes pact, reached in March 2024, included CBS taking in the AMAs, which previously had aired on ABC, for a pre-recorded 50th anniversary special to air that fall and the 51st AMAs in 2025.
Hosted by Jennifer Lopez, the 2025 AMAs reached over 10 million unique viewers across its CBS premiere on Memorial Day and encores on MTV (May 27), CMT (May 28) and BET (May 29). The CBS broadcast marked the show’s largest audience since 2019 with a +38% increase over its last live airing in 2022 on ABC.
Performances included Icon Award recipient Janet Jackson; Alex Warren, Becky G and Manuel Turizo, Benson Boone, Blake Shelton, Gloria Estefan, Gwen Stefani, Lainey Wilson, Reneé Rapp, and Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Rod Stewart.
Created by Dick Clark and first held in 1974, the American Music Awards winners are decided by fan voting. The nominees are determined by fan engagement across streaming, album and song sales, radio airplay and tour grosses as tracked by Billboard and Luminate. Both are owned by PMC as is Deadline and, via a joint venture, DCP.
