Eight of country music’s most talented newcomers -- each competing for the Academy of Country Music’s New Artist of the Year honor – will be featured on ACM Showcase, Monday, January 16, 8:00 pm/Eastern on Great American Country (GAC).  The 47^th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards will be held Sunday, April 1, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Alan Jackson, the quiet, laid back country superstar and his wife Denise sit down for a rare open and candid chat about their lives and his remarkable career in Backstory: Alan Jackson, premiering Thursday, December 22, 10:00 p.m./Eastern on Great American Country (GAC).   Those that know him best – producer Keith Stegall,  label head Mike Dungan, manager Nancy Russell, friend and fan Lee Ann Womack and others – offer up their observations as well.

Great American Country’s exclusive live coverage of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas (Dec. 1-10) delivered a network record 9.8 million viewers across all telecasts (4.1 million adults 25-54)¹, a level GAC President Ed Hardy called “historic.”

Headline Country on GAC – the only entertainment news show on television devoted exclusively to country music – will begin airing new weekly episodes in 2012 with the first episode airing Thursday, January 12, 10:00 p.m./Eastern.  The show had been bi-weekly.

 ”In every generation, there are songs that capture people’s hearts, that take artists to entirely new levels of stardom,” says country superstar Trace Adkins in Hit Exchange premiering Thursday, December 15, 9:00 p.m./Eastern on Great American Country.

The Wrangler National Finals Rodeo competition brings together some of the toughest and bravest athletes in the world.  Exclusive live coverage of the WNFR begins tomorrow, Thursday, December 1, 10:00 p.m./Eastern and runs each night through December 10 on Great American Country (GAC).  Held at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, the sold out events include professional rodeo’s seven categories -- bareback riding, steer wrestling, barrel racing, saddle bronc riding, tie-down roping, team roping and bull riding.