The 60th Annual CMA Awards will hand out trophies from a nominee list with no people of color, according to a USA Today exclusive by The Tennessean's Chris Parton and Caché McClay.

The field spans 63 individuals and 11 groups or duos across 12 categories, and it is the first entirely white slate since 2017.

That lands just a week before the Nov. 18 broadcast from Nashville's Bridgestone Arena, where Lainey Wilson hosts and 21 artists will perform 15 numbers, per Taste of Country and American Songwriter.

The contrast is stark: as the show celebrates Brooks & Dunn with a lifetime honor and pays tribute to the late Dolly Parton, the nominations themselves have regressed, in the words singer-songwriter Rissi Palmer used with The Tennessean, citing shrinking label support since 2020.

The Tennessean's reporting lays out a long list of artists whose work fell inside the July 1, 2025–June 30, 2026 eligibility window. Shaboozey's platinum No. 1 collaboration "Amen" with Jelly Roll won the 2026 Grammy for best country duo/group performance in February.

Previous nominees Kane Brown and The War and Treaty had active years, and Kashus Culpepper — on Big Loud, the same label as new artist nominee Stephen Wilson Jr. — was a potential contender.

The Tennessean also names Jelly Roll tour openers 2'Live Bre, Madelyn Roberts, K. Michelle and Sunny Black, plus Angie K, Moriah Smallbone and songwriter Gabe Lee, some of whom fell below the CMA's charting thresholds.

Breland told the outlet that only a couple of Black artists in the genre still hold record deals, and that coordinated label voting can squeeze out independents.

University of Ottawa musicologist Jada E. Watson's widely cited study, cited by The Tennessean, found just 1.6% of CMA nominees between 2000 and 2020 were people of color, with neither the CMAs nor the ACMs reaching 6% by 2021.

From 2020 through 2026 the show featured 18 nominations involving a person of color across seven acts — Jimmie Allen, Brown, Shaboozey and The War and Treaty among repeat nominees — making this year's zero a reversal of that trend.

The Tennessean explains the mechanics: more than 7,000 voting members in 17 professional categories vote in three rounds, and two label veterans said company leadership can influence how members vote.

Charley Pride remains the only Black entertainer of the year winner, honored in 1971, while women reached a relative high-water mark at nearly 29% of this year's field.

Black Opry co-founder Holly G told The Tennessean the nomination criteria themselves are the obstacle, since country radio success dominates the major categories, and asked why the process cannot change — suggesting something like a streaming song of the year category.

Palmer called it a chicken-and-egg problem, where artists need label money to earn radio support that earns nominations. Breland described a No. 1 radio single, 2021's "Beers On Me," whose verse some stations cut out of rotation without explanation.

Incoming CMA CEO Brittany Schaffer told the outlet the organization exists to serve the whole community, pointing to the Member Ambassador program and Country Forward events expanding membership since 2023, and said the CMA will keep working to engage a broader community.

The awards air Wednesday, Nov. 18 at 8 p.m. on ABC and Disney+, streaming next day on Hulu.