November 21, 2022, Issue 834
Inside The CMAs With Robert Deaton
Exec. Prod. Robert Deaton discusses the 56th Annual CMA Awards. CA: In addition to great feedback from the industry, total viewers were up – a rarity in the awards show space of late. Younger demos were down, but a win on many counts. What have you heard from the industry and the network? RD: The reception has been fantastic. Total viewers is what we care about for our genre. And by the time all the numbers come in – plus-sevens and all that – the network thinks we will exceed last year’s demo, because we stream really well on Hulu. Working on each individual performance, we don’t really feel the entirety of the show until I start putting my show board together. You’re so focused on figuring out the song or the collaboration, but you hope there’s some sort of arc to the show. It took me about four or five Robert Deaton hours to do the first run-of-show, and then I tried to get away from it for a day. The next day, I came back and worked it for a couple more hours and told my assistant, “This is going to be one of our better shows.” It’s probably my favorite since we did the 50th anniversary. Some of that is planned; some of it is luck. When you have a Loretta tribute and an Alan Jackson moment you know will appeal to the upper end of the demo, do you think about balancing that with more youth appeal? No, I’m only thinking about that individual performance. I’ve got blinders on when I’m coming up with the Loretta performance. That one was incredibly personal. One of my first jobs at 19 or 20 was as a production assistant on the Crisco commercials Loretta did at Hurricane Mills. Over the years with commercials, music videos and the CMA Awards, we were friends, and I’m very good friends with her daughter, Patsy. It was really important to get that right, and the more Carrie Underwood, Reba I thought about it, the more I and Miranda Lambert realized there’s just no other way (continued on page 6)
Trio Grande: Stoney Creek’s Jimmie Allen (l) at last night’s (11/20) American Music Awards with Lionel Richie (c) and Smokey Robinson.
River Carves New Promo Course
Last month, longtime on-air and programming talent Lance Houston was named River House VP/Promotion & Artist Development (CAT 10/24). He tells Country Aircheck what the new role entails and how he will use his years of programming experience to contribute to the label’s mission. After exiting iHeart in June amid companywide cutbacks (CAT 6/8), a mutual friend set an introductory meeting for Houston and River House Founder Lynn Oliver-Cline. “I’ve always admired Lynn and everything she’s Lance Houston built, so I thought I’d pick her brain on radio stuff and where she sees the industry going,” he explains. “But after sitting down with her and [VP/GM] Zebb [Luster], I felt like I was at home. By the end of our conversation, Lynn looked at me
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