Tonight at 8/7c The CMA Awards air on ABC. The awards are country musics premier event and have a history of dominating viewership every year.

Even with last year’s numbers being down, most likely due to Hurricane Sandy, according to Entertainment Weekly, The CMA Awards, which saw a 21 percent decrease in viewership from 2011, still led by a wide margin in total viewership and the advertiser coveted 18-49 demographic.

This year should prove no different, with country music leading album sells in America and the award show booking the biggest names in the business to perform on stage viewership should see quite a spike from last year. Most of this can be attributed to country musics cross over appeal in recent years, thanks in large part to artists like Taylor Swift, Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton. Also a new movement of what ABC News calls “bro” country, country music sung by hunky heartthrobs with a rock&roll leaning.

The Huffington Post laid out ten reasons why no one should miss this years CMA Awards, some of the most notable include a who’s who of country superstars lined up to perform. Starting with hosts, Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley, there also George Strait, Alan Jackson, Keith Urban, Miranda Lambert, Taylor Swift, Allison Krauss, Vince Gill, Dave Grohl will playing drums with The Zac Brown Band, and many many more packed into the three hour event.

If your a fan of real music television you might not want to miss the extravagance of The CMA Awards. Tonight at 8/7c on ABC.