EXCLUSIVE: Luke Bryan & Peyton Manning Dish On What Fans Can Expect at the 2023 CMA Awards

The dynamic duo will be hosting the awards again this year on ABC.

Photo by All Country News

Country music's biggest night is back for its 57th annual show. For the second year in a row country music superstar Luke Bryan will be joined by football legend Peyton Manning to host the show. Last year the hosting duo got rave reviews and just as many laughs. But what is in store for this year?

"We had a Zoom, script read yesterday," Luke Bryan told All Country News and other outlets at a press conference. Doing his best to balance hosting duties and dad life, Luke admitted that he took the call from his son's school so we would not miss his soccer game. "The school's Wi-Fi went down. So Peyton gave me some grace and let me run a little late. He didn't beat me up too bad for that."

Luke also laughed and touched on that the second time around they "know a little bit better about comedic timing and how that's going to roll." Last years show was full of laughs and many comedic jabs at one an other about football and even the viral moment where Peyton played the Tennessee football anthem Rocky Top for Luke, a die hard Georgia Bulldogs fan.

While the pair said Zebb the dancer will not be back, they promised the night will be full of laughs. The duo also said they have also rehearsed better than last year, siting that last years entrance at the top of the show did not go as planned.

"We had all these rehearsals last year and we walked out at the top of the show and I thought we were supposed to stand at this spot and Luke thought it was a different spot. I think we kind of just slid down the middle," Manning laughs. Peyton also reflected on a perk he gets as host, watching rehearsals.

"One of my favorite parts, I actually just got to go watch a couple of the artists perform in these rehearsals. I love today and even tomorrow, hearing every artist perform. I try to sneak out from kind of the things Luke and I are supposed to be doing and go watch Chris Stapleton sing. But I think the Jimmy Buffett tribute tomorrow will be special. I remember the Loretta Lynn tribute last year. Talked to my buddy Kenny who's a very fitting person to have perform part of the Jimmy Buffett tribute."

Photo By All Country News

With the goal of making this year's hosting job even more entertaining than the last, Luke stated that the jokes this year will be even better and jokes that as they helped to write the script felt the most natural to their own personal relationship.

"Peyton's got things that he's probably a little tired of going there and talking about, and I do too," Luke laughed. "If we keep turning back the clock and talking about stuff we've talked about our whole careers when we've been in all-day audiences, that's not getting us anywhere." Aiming to be more creative this year, Luke also noted that the jabs this year will be a "little more creative and not the standard jokes that you would expect us to do to one another, you know, between football references and country music ones....I mean at the end of the day we want people having fun and smiling about what we're up there doing."

While the duo did not spill any secrets about some of the amazing performances and collaborations that are to happen, they both can agree that this year is bigger and better than ever!