This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The stars will be out in Nashville to honor the 2011 "CMT ARTISTS OF THE YEAR" – Jason Aldean, Kenny Chesney, Lady Antebellum (in Utah in February), Brad Paisley (in Utah in January) and Taylor Swift – for their successes of the past year.
Hosted by Rob Lowe, "CMT ARTISTS OF THE YEAR" will premiere Tuesday, December 13 at 9:00 p.m., ET/PT on CMT and CMT.com. (Check local llstings for Mountain Time.)During the 90-minute special taped at the Bridgestone Arena, CMT will bring these five honorees together and celebrate their year's successes with celebrity performances and appearances by The All-American Rejects, The Avett Brothers, Ellen DeGeneres, Gavin DeGraw, NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon, celebrity chef Stephanie Izard, Nickelback's Chad Kroeger, Miranda Lambert, Matthew McConaughey, New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton, Lionel Richie, Carrie Underwood (above), Joe Walsh of the Eagles and Hank Williams Jr.CMT ARTISTS OF THE YEAR honorees were chosen by ranking the top five artists based on the following criteria: sales (physical albums, digital albums, and single downloads); country radio airplay based on spins; concert grosses as a headliner or co-headliner; and activity on CMT.com (video streams, searches, and artist page views). The rankings were then compiled to identify the leading performers across the four categories cumulatively.