The nominees were announced today for the first annual American Country Awards. To be broadcast live from Las Vegas on December 6 on Fox TV, the awards program has 17 categories covering artists, albums, packaged tour, singles, and videos.  Leading the way with seven awards each are Easton Corbin and Lady Antebellum.  Carrie Underwood was next with six nominations while Josh Turner and Miranda Lambert each received five apiece.  The shows categories aren't as 'traditional' as other awards programs and rather than be "vocalist" and "entertainer" of the year awards, the category breaks down as "artist" which opens up an award to artists like Jason Aldean and if you look at the Artist of the Year category, four of the five listed feature or are female artists, something that has never happened with the CMA.  

Starting today, fans can vote once each day for their favorite American Country Awards nominees at www.theacas.com. Voting is open until November 8, 2010, for all categories, except for Artist of the Year, which closes on December 4. The nominees for each award category have been determined by one of the four respected media measurement companies Big Champagne, Great American Country, Mediabase and Pollstar.

Jason Aldean scores his first male artist category nomination and is paired with Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley and Keith Urban.  The female category features Jewel, Miranda Lambert, Reba McEntire, Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood. Again, both of these categories are 'different' than the similar CMA and ACM Award nomination categories.  For the group/duo award category - which is smartly combined It's pretty standard fare here with Lady Antebellum, the Zac Brown Band, Rascal Flatts and Sugarland being joined by The Band Perry.

While other awards programs have "Best New Artist" categories but somehow give awards to artists that may be past their first album and thus aren't "new", so to avoid this confusion,  the category is smartly called "Breakthrough Artist of the Year" and it features Easton Corbin, Danny Gokey, Jaron and the Long Road To Love, Jerrod Niemann and The Band Perry.  While each artist is technically new this past year, the category in the future could have somebody who isn't new and still be awarded a 'Breakthrough' award. Even though Carrie Underwood's Play On, Lady Antebellum's Need You Now and Miranda Lambert's Revolution are both on November's CMA Awards Album of the Year contender list, they're joined here by Luke Bryan's Doin' My Thing and Josh Turner's Haywire.  These two album's additions are quite refreshing instead of nominating the same five albums at every award show. 

An interesting change for the "Single of the Year" categories is that in addition to the standard mast-head category, there are also awards for "Single of the Year" from Male, female, duo/group and Breakthrough artists.  It's a theme that is also repeated for the video categories. One other cool aspect of these awards is the "Touring Award" is for best headlining tour. So that means that co-headliners are nominated together instead of being separated into a simple "entertainer of the year" category which people think means "concert tour".  It clears up the confusion of the other award shows. Take a look at the list of nominees below and let us know what you think of how the nominations played out. 

Complete List of Nominees for American Country Awards:

ARTISTS
Artist of the Year
Lady Antebellum
Miranda Lambert
Taylor Swift
Carrie Underwood
Zac Brown Band

Artist of the Year: Male
Jason Aldean
Luke Bryan
Kenny Chesney
Brad Paisley
Keith Urban

Artist of the Year: Female
Jewel
Miranda Lambert
Reba McEntire
Taylor Swift
Carrie Underwood

Artist of the Year: Duo or Group
Lady Antebellum
Rascal Flatts
Sugarland
The Band Perry
Zac Brown Band

Artist of the Year: Breakthrough Artist
Easton Corbin
Danny Gokey
Jaron and The Long Road To Love
Jerrod Niemann
The Band Perry

Albums
Album of the Year
“Doin’ My Thing,” Luke Bryan
“Need You Now,” Lady Antebellum
“Revolution,” Miranda Lambert
“Haywire,” Josh Turner
“Play On,” Carrie Underwood

SINGLES
Single of the Year
“Do I,” Luke Bryan
“A Little More Country Than That,” Easton Corbin
“Need You Now,” Lady Antebellum
“Gimme That Girl,” Joe Nichols
“Why Don’t We Just Dance,” Josh Turner

Single of the Year: Male
“Do I,” Luke Bryan
“Little More Country Than That,” Easton Corbin
“That’s How Country Boys Roll,” Billy Currington
“Gimme That Girl,” Joe Nichols
“Why Don’t We Just Dance,” Josh Turner

Single of the Year: Female
“White Liar,” Miranda Lambert
“Wrong Baby Wrong,” Martina McBride
“Consider Me Gone,” Reba McEntire
“Didn’t Know How Much I Loved You,” Kellie Pickler
“Cowboy Casanova,” Carrie Underwood

Single of the Year: Duo or Group
“Need You Now,” Lady Antebellum
“Little White Church,” Little Big Town
“Unstoppable,” Rascal Flatts
“Keep On Lovin’ You,” Steel Magnolia
“Toes,” Zac Brown Band

Single of the Year: Breakthrough Artist
“Little More Country Than That,” Easton Corbin
“Pray for You,” Jaron and The Long Road To Love
“Lover, Lover,” Jerrod Niemann
“Keep on Lovin’ You,” Steel Magnolia
“Beer on the Table,” Josh Thompson

TOURING
Touring Headline Package of the Year
Brooks & Dunn
Toby Keith
Martina McBride & Trace Adkins
Tim McGraw
Brad Paisley
Rascal Flatts
George Strait & Reba McEntire
Sugarland
Taylor Swift
Carrie Underwood

VIDEOS
Music Video of the Year
“A Little More Country Than That,” Easton Corbin
“Need You Now,” Lady Antebellum
“Hillbilly Bone,” Blake Shelton with Trace Adkins
“Why Don’t We Just Dance,” Josh Turner
“The Man I Want To Be,” Chris Young

Music Video: Male
“A Little More Country Than That,” Easton Corbin
“Southern Voice,” Tim McGraw
“Hillbilly Bone,” Blake Shelton with Trace Adkins
“Why Don’t We Just Dance,” Josh Turner
“The Man I Want To Be,” Chris Young

Music Video: Female
“White Liar,” Miranda Lambert
“Consider Me Gone,” Reba McEntire
“Didn’t Know How Much I Loved You,” Kellie Pickler
“Cowboy Casanova,” Carrie Underwood
“Work Hard, Play Harder,” Gretchen Wilson

Music Video: Duo or Group
“Need You Now,” Lady Antebellum
“Little White Church,” Little Big Town
“Unstoppable,” Rascal Flatts
“Keep on Lovin’ You,” Steel Magnolia
“Highway 20 Ride,” Zac Brown Band

Music Video: Breakthrough Artist
“Giddy On Up,” Laura Bell Bundy
“A Little More Country Than That,” Easton Corbin
“Lover, Lover,” Jerrod Niemann
“Keep on Lovin’ You,” Steel Magnolia
“If I Die Young,” The Band Perry

Again, after reading these nominations, what do you think of the award show's distribution of nominations? Will you watch the show?