American Music Awards Move to May 2025; Anniversary Special in October

The American Music Awards is taking one more year off. CBS and Dick Clark Productions are set to announce Tuesday that the AMAs, which weren’t held in 2023 — the first time the kudocast went dark since its 1974 launch — also won’t hand out awards in 2024.

Instead, the next ceremony (dubbed “the world’s largest fan-voted award show”) will take place in May 2025, the network and producer revealed — shifting the AMAs to the spring for the first time.

In its place this October, CBS will air a two-hour event, the “American Music Awards 50th Anniversary Special,” set to run at 8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT (simulcast on both coasts) on Oct. 6. This marks the beginning of a new relationship for the AMAs and Dick Clark Prods. with CBS, which also has taken over airing DCP’s Golden Globe Awards.

The special aims to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the AMAs, promising new performances, as well as artist interviews, special guests and never-seen footage from the DCP archives.

Per CBS and DCP, “The program will feature themed highlights from AMAs’ expansive show archives, each culminating with an original performance or artist interview. Segments will look back on the evolution of specific artists and genres at the AMAs, as well as award and performance milestones. The performances, created just for ‘American Music Awards 50th Anniversary Special,’ will include collaborations, debuts from today’s hottest stars and appearances from AMAs legends.”

The network and producer said that performers for the special will be announced in the coming weeks.

The AMAs were created by Dick Clark for ABC in 1974 after the Alphabet web lost its deal to broadcast the Grammys (to CBS) and was looking for a new musical event. For a period of time in the 1980s, the AMAs even edged out the Grammys in terms of viewers. Lionel Richie famously hosted the 1985 telecast and then immediately helped bring music’s superstars to record “We Are the World” later that night.

The AMAs initially aired in January or Februrary from 1974 to 2003. That year, ABC actually aired a second AMA telecast in November, as the kudocast was then moved to the end of the year. The AMAs continued in November (or once in October) until 2022, when its deal ended with ABC.

Besides CBS, the AMA special will be available to stream live and on-demand for Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers, or on-demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the next day.