Who will join Luke Bryan, Peyton Manning as a CMA Awards host in 2024?

2023 Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year Lainey Wilson will join a fellow Entertainer of the Year, Luke Bryan, and 2021 NFL Hall of Fame inductee Peyton Manning to host 2024's 58th annual CMA Awards live from Nashville's Bridgestone Arena on Nov. 20 from 8 – 11 p.m. EST) on ABC and the next day on Hulu.

"Nobody's getting talked about while being hotter than a firecracker in popularity than Lainey," Bryan told The Tennessean.

The event will mark Bryan's fourth time hosting, Manning's third and Wilson's first.

Wilson is the eighth woman to host the CMA Awards in the event's nearly six-decade-long history. Most recently, Reba McEntire co-hosted with Darius Rucker in 2020, Carrie Underwood split duties with Brad Paisley for over a decade until 2018 and Dolly Parton co-hosted with McEntire and Underwood in 2019.

Entertainer and songwriter Dale Evans and singers Bobbie Gentry, Barbara Mandrell and Anne Murray are the other women who have served as CMA Awards hosts.

"Lainey's brand and what she's about will mix well with what Peyton and I (have already been accomplishing) in the role," adds Bryan.

He notes that bringing a dose of Wilson's now super-familiar "bell-bottomed country with a flare" to the CMA stage allows for something of what she's accomplished since 2021 as a seven-time chart-topping and seven-time CMA Award-winning country performer to be elevated to the genre's pinnacle.

"That girl-next-door personality is perfect for the role."

Manning's role expanding deeper into country music culture

In 2022, co-host Manning opened his inaugural monologue as a CMA Awards co-host by calling the event the "Super Bowl of country music."

In 2023, he told The Tennessean that hearing live performances by artists like Chris Stapleton has quickly made the event a yearly favorite.

Notable this year is an event Manning engaged in before the CMA Awards.

He recently joined chart-topping country superstar Morgan Wallen as he walked out to the stage for his performance at the University of Tennessee's Neyland Stadium.

East Tennessee native Wallen was joined by the two-time Super Bowl champion and former UT quarterback, plus UT football coach Josh Heupel, current quarterback Nico Iamaleava and wide receiver Bru McCoy, upon entering the stadium.

Wallen's two-show-run at Neyland Stadium made history with 156,161 fans across both nights. The tally was five percent greater than The Jackson 5 achieved across three Neyland Stadium shows in 1984.

Nominees, more for 2024 CMA Awards

Wallen and Wilson lead the field of nominees at the 58th annual Country Music Association Awards .

Wallen's seven nominations include his duet with country newcomer Post Malone for "I Had Some Help," which has nominations for Single of the Year, Song of the Year, Musical Event of the Year and Music Video of the Year.

Entertainer of the Year will be contested between 2021 and 2022's winner, Luke Combs, 2023's winner, Wilson, and first-time nominee Jelly Roll against Stapleton (the honor's most nominated non-winner, now at eight times) and three-time nominee Wallen.

Wilson, the breakout winner last year, follows up 2023 as the year's most nominated female artist with four bids, including her second nomination for Entertainer of the Year, third for Female Vocalist, a Single of the Year nod for "Watermelon Moonshine" and a Music Video of the Year nod for the Patrick Tracy-directed video for "Wildflowers and Wild Horses." Wilson's career total of nominations is now 19.

Also of note is that Megan Moroney and Kacey Musgraves each secured three nominations, while 2024 "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" hitmaker Shaboozey is nominated for Single of the Year and Best New Artist.

For more information on the CMA Awards, visit www.cmaawards.com .

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Who will join Luke Bryan, Peyton Manning as a CMA Awards host in 2024?