After more than a decade on the air, CMT’s video‐countdown staple Hot 20 Countdown is heading into the sunset this December. The longtime weekend program, which counted down the 20 hottest country music videos, will air its final episode at the end of December 2025.
Launched in January 2013, the show quickly became a reliable weekend destination for country fans to catch video premieres, artist appearances and up‐to‐date chart action. Cody Alan, a familiar face at CMT since 2009, has been a steady presence behind the desk. More recently, Carissa Culiner joined as co‐host in spring 2022 and helped carry the program into its final chapters.
What makes this departure particularly noteworthy is that Hot 20 Countdown is reportedly the last original music‐program produced by CMT. For a network that once featured heavy music video rotation and original artist‑centred shows, the ending of this series signals a pivot away from traditional music countdown formats.
Behind the scenes, CMT has undergone significant upheaval. Its parent company, Paramount Global, completed a merger with Skydance Media and has enacted broad restructuring efforts, including staff layoffs and event slates being paused. The cancellation of the music‐video countdown show aligns with this broader strategy of re‑imagining the network’s content offerings.
For country‐music fans and viewers of the show, the weekend of December 26 is likely to mark the final chapter of Hot 20 Countdown, ending a fixture that has helped define video‐based country programming for years.
While CMT remains on the air, the decision underscores how the platform is changing—and how country‑music television programming is evolving along with the wider media landscape.