Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The CMT Music Awards air Wednesday night on  CMT, and the awards won’t be the only reason for American Idol fans to tune in.

Weeks ago, Carrie Underwood was announced as one of the show’s featured performers.

Now we find out that Casey James, Lauren Alaina and Scotty McCreery will perform on the Nationwide Stage, which is outside the main venue but featured frequently during the telecast (8 p.m. EST starting time).

And presenters of awards during the show will include Season 11 finalists Skylar Laine and Colton Dixon as well as Kellie Pickler and Jordin Sparks.

That’s quite a bit of Idol involvement.

Not that the awards shouldn’t be interesting in and of themselves.  In fact, Carrie leads all artists with five nominations.

She earned two of those with the first video from her new album, “Blown Away.”  “Good Girl” is nominated for video of the year and female video of the year.

Two other nominations come from her “Remind Me” duet with Brad Paisley.  That’s nominated for video of the year and collaborative video of the year.

Her fifth nomination:  That’s under the category of  CMT Performance of the Year for a duet she did with Steven Tyler of “Just a Dream”/”Dream On” on the CMT Crossroads program.

All told, there are 10 nominees for the night’s big prize — video of the year.  Fans voted for their favorites, and the final five nominees will be announced at the beginning of Wednesday’s show.

In addition to the two videos featuring Carrie, the other nominees are:

• “Dirt Road Anthem,” Jason Aldean
• “You and Tequila,” Kenny Chesney and Grace Potter
• “Red Solo Cup,” Toby Keith
• “We Owned the Night,” Lady Antebellum
• “Over You,” Miranda Lambert
• “Easy,” Rascal Flatts with Natasha Bedingfield
• “God Gave Me You,” Blake Shelton
• “Safe and Sound,” Taylor Swift with the Civil Wars

Among the other Idol nominations …

• Female Video of the Year:  “Tough” by Kellie Pickler
• Breakthrough Video of the Year:  “The Trouble with Girls” by Scotty McCreery
• Breakthrough Video of the Year:  “Georgia Peaches” by Lauren Alaina

For a complete list of nominees, head here.