And the big winner of the night at this years CMA Awards… Taylor Swift! Taking home 4 awards including Best Female Vocalist, Album of the Year, and the coveted Entertainer of the Year! Swift came by backstage to talk with us about all her wins, so did Brad Paisley who served as host and will go home with an award.

We also spoke with Lady Antebellum, winners for two categories: Best Single of the Year and Vocal Group. They say although this isn’t their first industry nod, they still have a lot to prove.

Next up, Best Duo: Sugarland, who used their acceptance speech to give a shout out on stage to fellow nominees Brooks and Dunn who’ve announced a split. Sugarland came by (CMA in hand) and talked about how good it feels to be the 43rd winner in this category.

And… we got to drop in on his CMA rehearsal, now he’s a CMA winner – Darius Rucker! We can stop calling him new to the genre now I think… A bonafide country star with the statue to prove it. One he says will go on display right between his Grammys.

And that’s a wrap from the 2009 Fox News coverage of the CMA Awards. Now its time to make your predictions for 2010…click “comment” below to do so!

Ashley and Jill Dobson on the red carpet!

Plenty of cowboy hats and a couple of boots made it onto the red carpet at the CMA’s tonight, as all the country stars dressed to the nines to celebrate the night and honor their peers. 

To name a few we caught up with… Reba McEntire, who wore her own “Reba” line dress! A shiny black floor length gown fitting for county royalty. The multi-tasking star discussed all her latest projects and from clothing to furniture and of course new music this year, she’s been busy.

Several former American Idols made there way over too like Diana Degarmo in bright pink and Danny Gokey (who we spoke to already earlier in the day, but we wanted to know how his first CMA red carpet was going!)  

The Judds (Wynonna and Naomi) came by too and made sure to recognize Veterans Day. They also spoke with us about working together and what this year means to them since 25 years ago today they won their first award as The Judds at the CMAs. 

Now the show is going on and we are backstage waiting for all the winners to tell us if it really is an “honor just to be nominated” or… if its always better to win!
Stay tuned for more from here at the Sommet Center in Nashville.

Back in Nashville and so far it’s been one live music set after another! From the moment we walked off the plane there’s someone singing a hit country tune and everywhere we go especially downtown there are folks hitting the stage.

Here to catch up with the stars as they prep for their CMA week, we were able to check in with Darius Rucker who last year was just beginning his run in this genre and telling us how he was excited to be welcomed onto the scene … the Hootie and the Blowfish lead singer has been turning out the hits solo for country ever since.

All around town folks are buzzing with celebrity spottings like now Nashville staple Kid Rock (some said they saw him over at the other Nashville staple “Tootsies”). We got to check out the famous Tootsies and get a tour! And that idea of people coming to this city guitar in hand hoping to catch their break …  I saw it myself right there with one hopeful wanting to get a chance to show what he’s got at the Orchid Lounge.

And we also caught up with Alan Jackson, former American Idols Kellie Pickler and Danny Gokey, and took a studio tour with Jimmy Wayne!

Plus, there’s much more to come as all of the stars from Carrie to Taylor, Kenny to Brad, and the rest of the big names in country walk the red carpet at the CMAs tonight!

By Ashley Dvorkin, FNC Entertainment Producer

Aside from chatting with Megan Fox and her humor-horror flick co-stars about their gig coming out this week “Jennifer’s Body” (see past “On the Scene” entry), there were other A-listers who lent us their time to dish about their latest projects.

Multi-tasking entertainer Mariah Carey turns actress again for the drama “Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire” an intense film in which she plays a social worker trying to help a troubled 16-year-old abuse victim (played by newcomer Gabourey Sidibe, who’s name I predict we will all know soon).  It’s the film Mo’Nique is already getting awards buzz for and the one Oprah is producer on.

This is the role you may have also heard features a make-upless Mariah (with a wardrobe circa 1987).  She has a fun sense of humor when talking about stripping down her usual glamorous look to get into this heavy role that she calls “more than a plain Jane”.  It was a welcomed challenge and she trusted the director, but admits to trying to sneak a little blush and laughed when she added “it didn’t matter, like blush was going to solve that issue.”  So as you can tell, no Diva-attitude here!  I think we’ll be seeing more of the Hollywood-bound Carey who admits she’d like to keep pursuing this route.

(Stay tuned for more on this film when it gets closer to the November release date!)

Meanwhile, Matt Damon was also in town for “The Informant!”, due out this week, a dark comedy based on true story of the highest-ranking corporate whistleblower in the US.  Although when it comes to undercover spy work Matt said, “I don’t think I’d be particularly good at it, I’m not very good at keeping secrets in general.”  And bringing things back to his Academy Award win for writing, I asked if he’ll be doing more behind the camera work, “I’d like to keep writing and eventually want to direct”

It was also fun to spend time with Ricky Gervais who pretty much does everything on his upcoming film “The Invention of Lying” as star, writer, and director.  Set in a world where everyone tells the truth because they have to and “saying nothing at all” isn’t an option – it co-stars Jennifer Garner and Rob Lowe among other big-time cameos.  We talked about having fun on the set (nerf balls were apparently a toy of choice) and Lowe clarified the theory that just because they make believe on the big screen doesn’t mean they are good at lying in real-life he says “good actors are bad liars, bad actors are good liars”.  I also tried to throw a statistic at Gervais about how many times people lie in a day just to have him play along but – I didn’t have the number on me!  So although a funny moment, it was a failed attempt – guess I’m not that good a liar either!

You only have to wait until October for this one.

(and yes, there will be plenty more video and information on those films too coming up on Foxnews.com!)

Lots of excitement behind the scenes at the ‘American Idol’ extravaganza! To set the scene: with all the press, the former American Idols, the finalist Idols of this season, the judges, the publicists, the celebrities, the fans (screaming with signs) – it was all action all the time outside the Nokia theater.

The finale day was a day full of interviewing former American Idols and those that made it into Season 8 top 10… or 11… or 12, it was hard to tell this time around how many were going to remain in the spotlight – maybe all of season 8 will come out with albums …  who knows!

We also hit the star-studded red carpet. There were music greats like the Black Eyed Peas, Carlos Santana, Keith Urban, and Steve Martin (the actor who is also a musician and performed on the show).  Of course there were those who had once won the judges over themselves like Carrie Underwood and David Cook.  Plus our biggest stars of the night, Adam and Kris.

Now that the competition is over, you could tell during the show itself that they were just having fun out there (and who wouldn’t have fun with KISS on stage!)

Then the biggest part of the evening was the announcement that Kris Allen would be taking home the title of American Idol season 8 winner.  It may have been a huge surprise to plenty of people who had long thought that Adam Lambert was a sure thing for #1, especially with all the praise he received all season from the judges.

Both the winner and the runner-up told us with their interviews this morning (which never really stopped from last night) they each have won. They were both surprisingly full of energy talking about their time on the show and what’s to come.  It’s amazing to remember them from their audition round, to all of us Idol watchers critiquing each week’s competition from our own judge’s seat, to now seeing them here wrapping it all up for us. Time flies when you’re having fun on Idol… And yes, I did ask Adam to take a photo with me which normally I don’t do but, its Idol! And its a little more “on the scene” to remember this incredible season by.

My prediction: two VERY different albums, from two VERY different, but amazingly talented “former” American Idol contestants.

Now its up to season 9 to top that!