ACM's vs. Everybody

Contrary to what people believe there aren't that many Country Award shows. There's the CMA, ACM and CMT awards. Maybe Rock has a couple more but that's it. In reality the only one of these that counts is the CMA's. It's the Grammy's to the ACM's American Music Awards. The 2008 version of the ACM's was a struggle to sit through. Some bad performances by Garth Brooks, Rodney Atkins, Trisha Yearwood, Rascal Flatts, Brooks & Dunn/Reba McEntire were only part of the problem. The awards themselves, unlike the CMA's, seem beside the point. The need to fill 3 hours for so few awards makes for some staid performances. In the end these are just award shows. But given prime Network time to make its case, the mild Country music observer would wander where the wow factor is.