Country California

Fan voting has determined that the CMT Music Awards scheduled for next Tuesday, June 16 will be rebranded as The Taylors in honor of new-country goddess Taylor Swift.

“The weirdest thing is that, although this is a fan-voted show, the name of the show was actually not one of the things up for a vote. We just received so many letters from the Swift faithful that we had to honor their wishes,” said CMT.com editorial director Chet Flippo. “By the way, have I told you about how I knew Waylon?”

While some have characterized the rebranding as spineless pandering on CMT’s part, Flippo characterized it as a fair compromise: “Listen, if we were just going to give the fans exactly what they wanted, it would have been named The Taylor is Better Than Carrie Awards. But we had to draw the line somewhere, and I think The Taylors is a title we can all live with.”

While some have cried foul at the apparent special consideration given to Swift fans, Flippo was quick to point out that this is not the first time fans have attempted to rename the show. Back in 2004, the show was very nearly renamed The Gretchens, until it was discovered that all of the write-in votes had come from one lonely man in Nebraska. “The only difference is that Swift actually has the fanbase to make the change happen,” said Flippo.

Underwood fans are reportedly in a huff over the matter, threatening everything from lawsuits against CMT to boycotting Swift to founding a new nation (with its own award show) where Carrie can reign supreme forevermore to flooding the comment section of every online article about Swift with remarks about how Carrie is better. Some of these initiatives are already in action, promises prolific online Underwood street-teamer CarrieBot13.

Although the results of the fan voting will not be known until Tuesday, as of Friday afternoon Swift’s name had magically appeared on the final nominee list in the Male, Duo, and Group Video of the Year categories. The televised show will also see Swift debut a new song, which her publicist coyly suggests “might be about a boy.”

Concept by Farce the Music