'Opry Live' Bows Out From CMT By: Brian Mansfield, Special for USA TODAY The Grand Ole Opry soon will have a new television home. Beginning Oct. 4, Grand Ole Opry Live, the televised one-hour portion of the weekly country music radio show, will move from Country Music Television (CMT) to competitor Great American Country (GAC). "It's the crown in the country programming business," says GAC president Jeff Wayne. "If there's a single show out there that could drive demand for our network to help us grow, it's Opry Live." The Opry will lose reach in the switch; GAC is in 25 million U.S. households compared with CMT's 70 million. It will, however, maintain its regular weekly presence and increase the number of repeat telecasts for Grand Ole Opry Live. The show currently airs at 8 p.m. ET live/PT tape each Saturday and will air live at 8 p.m. ET/5 PT when it moves. CMT's Grand Ole Opry Live telecast draws approximately 1.5 million to 2 million viewers each week, making it the cable channel's highest-rated weekly series. "It's appointment viewing for a lot of people," says Steve Buchanan, senior vice president for media and entertainment at Gaylord Entertainment, which owns the Opry. "Basically, what they (CMT) were proposing was a limited series," he says. "We would not have had the same frequency we have currently, and we would not have had the same frequency we will have with GAC." However, GAC will run fewer live episodes of the show, at least initially: a minimum of 26 in the first year of the contract, down from 40-plus. "It is dropping down the first year," Wayne says, "but it will increase as we go over the following years." GAC also will repeat Grand Ole Opry Live five times: once on Saturday, twice on Sunday, and twice again on Tuesday. CMT currently repeats the show once on Saturday night and again on Sunday. In a statement released Wednesday, CMT said: "CMT loves, respects, and supports the great institution of the Grand Ole Opry and its significance in country music. The contract has reached the end of its term. CMT and Gaylord Entertainment negotiated for a new term, but an agreement was not reached." GAC's first episode of Grand Ole Opry Live will include a tribute segment to the late Patsy Cline, featuring such singers as Lee Ann Womack and Rebecca Lynn Howard performing Cline's songs.

Originally Published In USA Today On September 4, 2003







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