( EW.com ) -- For the sixth straight year , Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood will cohost the CMA Awards , airing tonight at 8 p.m . ET on ABC . ( See our predictions for who we think will win , and who we 'd vote for . ) There 's a long list of performances , which include Taylor Swift collaborating with Alison Krauss and Vince Gill , Dave Grohl joining the Zac Brown Band , and George Strait and Alan Jackson paying tribute to the late , great George Jones . Back in August , when Paisley began talking to exec producer Robert Deaton about this year 's show , one of their first conversations was about how the broadcast would honor Jones . `` It ought to be the best you can have with those two doing it , '' Paisley told EW last month . `` They 're the heirs to the torch . If anybody 's close to the stratosphere that George Jones was cruising in , it 's them . That 's who it needs to be . '' EW : CMA Awards - Who will win ( and who should ) Fans will also tune in to see what Paisley and Underwood come up with for their opening monologue . When we spoke to Paisley , he expected them to have fun with the genre 's current identity crisis , epitomized by Brown referring to Entertainer of the Year nominee and fellow performer Luke Bryan 's bro-country chart-topper `` That 's My Kind of Night '' as `` the worst song I 've ever heard . '' `` You 've got people in our industry all fired up on each side of that issue , and then you 've got me â€ ” I 'm just happy about it , '' Paisley says , laughing . `` It 's like I 'm this sadist when we 're writing this show . I 'm like , 'Oh , that looks painful ... That 's great ! '' EW : How country music went crazy - A comprehensive timeline of the genre 's identity crisis . Everything is a potential punchline : `` Dolly Parton 's in a fender bender . The first thing I heard was , 'She 's fine though . ' Cool . Great , because I love Dolly ... . Well , I guess that 's fair game , '' he said , laughing again . `` It 's such a weird thing : On one hand , I 'm glad the government 's not shut down , but yet I 'm not . It 's horrible that the Obamacare website is such a disaster , but it 's also not that horrible because there 's a great song about that somewhere . We have all these things that we could talk about ... and all I can say is , 'Go , Miley ! Keep it up . ' '' EW : CMA nominations 2013 - The snubs and surprises . With Underwood rehearsing for NBC 's Dec. 5 The Sound of Music Live ! , the two worked on material by texting each other whenever they came across something that might make for good fodder . `` Every time I get a text from Carrie , I picture her dressed as Maria . 'In regards to twerking , ' and she 's dressed as a Von Trapp writing that , '' Paisley said . `` I was like , ' I 'll get out in lederhosen [ at the CMAs ] , I do n't care . ' But I do n't know how ABC will feel about that . We 'll see . '' See the original story at EW.com . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2011 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved .
The Country Music Awards air Wednesday night . There is a long list of performances . Co-hosts Paisley and Underwood have been texting material for show .