Thomas Rhett and Lauren Akins to Host 2020 ‘CMA Country Christmas’ TV Special Together
The CMA Country Christmas television special will return in 2020, with a twist: First-time hosts Thomas Rhett and his wife, Lauren Akins, will be helming the show. The pair announced the news during an appearance on Good Morning America on Wednesday morning (Nov. 11).
Rhett and Lauren are major fans of Christmas, the pair shared with GMA host Michael Strahan. The pair have, in the past, hosted caroling events with their fellow country star friends, and in 2019, Rhett released a pair of Christmas songs, including his original "Christmas in the Country."
“It is really intense. It stays on — it’s not ABC Family anymore — but it stays on Freeform, and I swear it’s nothing but Elf 20 times in December and all the Harry Potter movies and the old-school Rudolph,” Rhett shared in 2016 of the couple's TV habits leading up to the holiday. "We get the biggest tree — I mean sometimes it hits our ceiling and bends. We’re like the Griswolds.
"Lauren loves it, and we always have an ugly Christmas sweater party every year and we invite 100 of our friends over, and it’s always a really good time,” Rhett adds. “We love Christmas!”
Through the years, Rhett and Lauren's Christmas traditions have changed as their family has grown. Christmas 2020 will be their first as a family of five: They welcomed their third daughter, Lennon Love, in February. Willa Gray, whom the couple adopted from Uganda, Africa, came home in May of 2017, while middle daughter Ada James was born in August of that year.
CMA Country Christmas 2020 is scheduled to air on Nov. 30 on ABC at 9PM ET, as announced on GMA. Further details, including the show's performance lineup, have yet to be announced.