The special features performances by Jason Aldean, Billy Currington, Alan Jackson, Kid Rock, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride, Reba McEntire, Tim McGraw, Justin Moore, Brad Paisley, Kellie Pickler, Rascal Flatts, Darius Rucker, Taylor Swift, Josh Turner, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, and Zac Brown Band. The show was filmed last June in front of a sold-out audience during the CMA Music Festival in Nashville, Tennessee.

This year, CMA Music Festival served as the Grand Re-Opening of Nashville, after the city and surrounding areas experienced a devastating flood in May. The flood, the recovery efforts, and the coming together of the Nashville community to help its fellow citizens will be spotlighted in the television special. CMA is donating 50 percent of this year’s net proceeds from the Festival to the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee for flood relief. As always, the other 50 percent of net proceeds will be donated to the Nashville Alliance for Public Education through CMA’s Keep the Music Playing program to purchase instruments and supplies for music education in Metro Nashville Public Schools.

The annual CMA Music Festival is unlike any other, with four days filled with more than one hundred hours of live music, 30 hours of autograph signings by Country Music’s biggest names and up and comers, hundreds of artists and celebrities, and a party list of thousands of avid fans. This year an average of 65,000 fans from every state and 26 foreign countries attended each day of CMA Music Festival, its biggest turnout yet.
There is a lot of great music, of course, but there are also a few unexpected moments: Dierks Bentley takes viewers into his late night fan club party; Jason Aldean gives an exclusive look at his “huddle” with the band to get pumped up before performing at LP Field; Gloriana shows off their “bus mascot” given to them by Taylor Swift; and noted practical joker Blake Shelton makes a special “request” of Kellie Pickler to watch his dogs and his mother while he heads out to perform.

This special just happens to coincide with the announcement of the 2010 CMA nominations. The final five categories will be announced Wednesday by Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley on ABC’s Good Morning America. The awards ceremony is November 10 and will be hosted for the third year in a row by Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley.

The nominations in the seven categories announced Tuesday:

Single of the Year (Award goes to Artist and Producer(s))
A Little More Country Than That – Easton Corbin – Produced by Carson Chamberlain
Hillbilly Bone – Blake Shelton featuring Trace Adkins – Produced by Scott Hendricks
Need You Now – Lady Antebellum – Produced by Paul Worley and Lady Antebellum
The House That Built Me – Miranda Lambert – Produced by Frank Liddell and Mike Wrucke
White Liar – Miranda Lambert – Produced by Frank Liddell and Mike Wrucke

Song of the Year (Award goes to Songwriter(s))
A Little More Country Than That – Rory Lee Feek, Don Poythress, and Wynn Varble
Need You Now – Dave Haywood, Charles Kelley, Hillary Scott, and Josh Kear
The House That Built Me – Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin
Toes – Zac Brown, Wyatt Durrette, John Driskell Hopkins, and Shawn Mullins
White Liar – Miranda Lambert and Natalie Hemby

Vocal Group of the Year
Lady Antebellum
Little Big Town
Rascal Flatts
The Band Perry
Zac Brown Band

Vocal Duo of the Year
Brooks & Dunn
Joey + Rory
Montgomery Gentry
Steel Magnolia
Sugarland

New Artist of the Year
Luke Bryan
Easton Corbin
Jerrod Niemann
Chris Young
Zac Brown Band

Music Video of the Year (Award goes to Artist and Director)
Hillbilly Bone – Blake Shelton featuring Trace Adkins – Directed by Roman White
Need You Now – Lady Antebellum – Directed by David McClister
The House That Built Me – Miranda Lambert – Directed by Trey Fanjoy
Water – Brad Paisley – Directed by Jim Shea
White Liar – Miranda Lambert – Directed by Chris Hicky

Musician of the Year
Paul Franklin – Steel Guitar
Dann Huff – Guitar
Brent Mason – Guitar
Mac McAnally – Guitar
Randy Scruggs – Guitar

And in case you didn’t know who I am voting for in every category possible, here’s a little hint: He’s a “little more country than that.”

h/t x17online, August 30th:

The whole cast of Jersey Shore, in some as-yet unfolding drama, is being sued for assault by a New Jersey woman: known only as “J.P.,” she blamed a verbal Snooki dust-up for her scarred chin – incurred when four bodyguards tackled her to the ground. To drive things eleven levels beyond overkill, she’s also (via rep Eugene Lavergne) named MTV and Viacom Productions as co-defendants – claiming them to be complicit in criminal racketeering operations.

What’s more pathetic: the Shore‘s existence, the idea of Pauly D bringing “The Godfather”‘s dead horse scene alive for Jay, the idea that Snooki weighs over 800lbs . . . or the ethics record of Mr. Lavergne?

Bristol Palin is joining the Season 11 cast of Dancing With the Stars: the online news branch of E! Network, in an August 26th exclusive, confirmed that the oldest daughter of Alaska’s First Family will be available to ring in the elimination show’s new season on September 20th.

For its part, ABC won’t officially comment on casting until the end of August, but they should probably pull a Shawn Johnson with this one and hire some extra security: too many lunatics are running around out there with political axes to grind.

Per 8/23 Hollywood Reporter bit, the television network G4 has ordered ten episodes of reality series “Bomb Patrol” – following military EOD (bomb techs) in Afghanistan. The series, based on the anti-war flop that was “The Hurt Locker,” is treading new ground for the network: produced by Big Fish Entertainment in conjunction with the Navy, it’ll give G4 viewers something more interesting to look at than cheesy Japanese shows or PETA advertisements featuring Olivia Munn.

Ya think Ninja Warrior got balls? WE GOT YOUR BALLS RIGHT HERE!

h/t Mediaite

What does a man who has everything – including a spot at the front row of the White House Press Corps briefing room – do? He packs his bags and, as per 8/25 confirmation with his Twitter audience, plans his September 3rd one-way trip to the National Journal to get some sweet Congressional coverage action:

In making the announcement, Garrett said, “Slightly more than eight years ago, [FOX News Chairman & CEO] Roger Ailes, [former FOX News Executive Vice President] John Moody and [former FOX News Washington Managing Editor and current Senior Political Analyst] Brit Hume created a full-time reporting position for me in the Washington bureau. Our new Senior Vice President of News, Michael Clemente, has continued that support. Since August of 2002, the network and its top executives have given me every opportunity a journalist could hope for. I thank the network for giving me the chance to grow as a reporter and broadcaster.”

He continued, “Throughout my television career, I’ve known with certainty I would someday return to my roots in print journalism. That day has come. I will soon announce an exciting new phase of my career — one made possible in no small part by FOX News’ consistent support. It would take a lot – something near perfection – to lure me away from the best job I’ve ever had. Details to come.”

Garrett further remarked, “I will miss many dear FOX News journalists, colleagues and friends. I wish all of them success. I look forward to discussing my future work on FOX News – keeping in touch with an audience I’ve come to know and cherish. Before I leave FOX News, I would like to say a heartfelt thank you to each and every viewer who extended to me their generous good wishes, support and encouragement.”

Best of luck to you, Major. It’s been a great eight years. Don’t change your game for the new gig – keep it real.

In little more than a couple of weeks, shameless attention slut Levi Johnston – plus Stone Company – got filming for that new mayoral reality gig of his in gear, but there’s only one problem: Per 8/23 RadarOnline scoop, they’re unable to make the mess interesting enough that someone broadcasts it.

Yeah, for real: Alaska’s own Sling Blade hasn’t even seen TV viewers/critics supply him NewOnes™ and already he’s too horrible for Hollywood. Tripp, per crew consensus, kicks Levi’s butt in that department – however Bristol is dead set against a baby cameo. And Sarah, for her part . . . let’s just say it isn’t new news that she hates his guts.

Consider this your Field of Nightmares, Ricky: If you can’t build it, they won’t vote.

Maybe music videos are more your speed?

In your dose of weird celebrity happenings to start the week, the Hills duo of Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag are getting – shall we say – freaky in Costa Rica: Spencer is threatening to release hour upon hour of their “amazing sexual content” to Vivid Entertainment should his knife-obsessed playmate pull out of reality TV. The possible tape collection, which we will hereafter dub “Nutcases Gone Wild,” promises to showcase footage of Hollywood’s conspiracy queen before and after her plastic surgeries.

All told, he wants to sell the package for $5M; he’ll even throw in some girl-on-girl bedroom throwdown between Heidi and Playboy‘s Karissa Shannon for good measure.

Is this a stunt being planned by the two of them to get back in the public eye? When did Spencer get ambitions of becoming a porn star? And perhaps the most important question . . . Whatever these two are on, can it be made into brownies?

h/t PopEater:

After a sixty-thousand dollar shopping spree while deep in debt, Teresa Giudice – one of the stars of Bravo’s “Real Housewives of New Jersey” – thinks she can take the dependent’s way out, and claim that Bravo is responsible for her financial troubles:

“If she wasn’t on the show, this all would be much easier,” a friend of Teresa’s tells PopEater.

“Everything would be settled by now, but because she is now famous everyone is using the situation to get press for themselves and humiliate her and her family. It’s honestly got to the point where she’s not sure if she wants to come back for another season.”

. . .

“Teresa is sick of everyone knowing all her private financial business,” an insider tells me. “She didn’t sign up to be on ‘Housewives’ so that everyone could look into her bank account. Millions of couples go through what they are going through, except no one knows about it. It’s just not fair.”

Not only does the blindingly obvious “no one is responsible for her problems but Teresa herself” apply: she signed up for Chapter 7. And whoever wants to file for bankruptcy has to be able to prove in a court of law that they’re . . . well . . . bankrupt.

Was this all some kind of elaborate publicity stunt?

Via iVillage:

22-year old Jersey Shore star Nicole Polizzi – better known as Snooki – was charged in absentia with exercising her right to be annoying during her 8/18 disorderly conduct proceedings. As anyone with half a brain knows, if being a bitch at the beach was enough to rack up legal demerits, 99% of AT&T’s coverage area (that’s damn near the whole country) would be locked away.

She doesn’t have anything more important to do than whine, explode at cops, or repair a microcrack in her nail . . . but not even Snooks deserves to be beaten over the head with the STFU stick.

So who could say “no” to that? The Kings of Leon, that’s who. The Nashville-based rock group turned down an offer to have their music used on the show. It’s not the first time they’ve turned the networks down, either. The Kings passed on an offer to make an appearance on the now-canceled sitcom Ugly Betty.

It’s a pretty safe bet to assume that the Glee team was interested in one Kings of Leon song (the unavoidable “Use Somebody”) and the band probably knows that most of America is already sick of it.

Or maybe they are still recovering from the concert they cancelled in St. Louis recently, when pigeons pooped all over them. They just announced a return visit concert (Sept. 25th) to make up for the cancelled gig. Here’s hoping that the fans return, and that the pigeons do not.

The new album Kings of Leon album, Come Around Sundown is due in stores on October 19. Maybe there’s a hit on the new album that will make it onto Glee someday. Don’t stop believin’ guys…