The ceremony originally aired on TNN, prior to its parent company's acquisition of former rival network Country Music Television in 1991.

[citation needed] TNN's contract with Music City News ended in 1999, and the magazine ceased publication shortly thereafter.

[citation needed] In 2001, as TNN began to phase out its association with country music, the decision was made to shift the awards show to sister network CMT.

The "Flameworthy" name was coined by program development vice president Kaye Zusmann, and aimed to symbolize the waving of lighters or similar lights at concerts (this was before the current negative meaning of the word flaming from the Internet became more commonplace).

[citation needed] On June 28, 2021, ViacomCBS (now known as Paramount Global) announced that the awards would move to broadcast television on sister network CBS and shift back to April beginning in 2022.

[5][6] The ceremony's new scheduling would jettison the Academy of County Music Awards, which also had been typically held in April and historically broadcast by CBS; the network subsequently declined to renew its contract to air the ACM Awards, citing declining viewership in comparison to increased rights fees demanded by Dick Clark Productions.