THE Academy of Country Music’s 2020 awards show will not be taking place as planned.

On Sunday, the Academy announced that this year’s show is postponed and will be rescheduled to air on CBS in September due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

“The health and safety of our artists, fans, industry, staff and partners is our number one priority,“ the Academy said in a press release.

“The ACM Awards is a tentpole event for our Country Music industry, and the Academy of Country Music and dick clark productions went to great lengths to find a safe solution for the show to go on so that we can honor our artist community. This decision involved many partners, stakeholders and the industry who we have been in constant conversations with over the past several days as the situation has developed. We look forward to identifying a future date that we can celebrate with our Country community safely,” said Damon Whiteside, CEO of the Academy of Country Music.

The show, hosted by the reigning entertainer of the year Keith Urban, was scheduled to air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on April 5.

For this year’s show, Maren Morris, Thomas Rhett and producer Dan Huff had earned five nominations each, making them the most-nominated artists. Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney of the country duo Dan + Shay earned four nods for the video of the year, music event of the year and song of the year categories for “10,000 Hours,” their collaboration with pop star Justin Bieber, who is a first-time nominee.

Blake Shelton and Old Dominion also received four nominations, while Eric Church, Miranda Lambert, Luke Combs, McBryde and Kacey Musgraves had earned three each.

The ACM Awards is among the first major televised awards ceremonies to be canceled or postponed amid the ongoing fears of the coronavirus. (SD-Agencies)