The 2015 Grammy nominees will be revealed in two parts, both on Friday, Dec. 5. Album of the Year nominations will go up during an hour-long “A Very Grammy Christmas” at night, at 9 p.m. on CBS; all other categories will be announced early that morning.
According to Variety, the Recording Academy wanted to shake up their unveiling strategy, after six years of hosting a “Grammy Nominations Concert LIVE!” on Monday nights. The “holiday special” — a strategy which has been explored by other music organizations like the CMAs — will keep at least that single category of nominations in a performance show format.
As for the other 82 categories besides Album of the Year? Those nominations are “not expected to be presented in a press conference setting,” though many other awards shows like the Golden Globes and Oscars choose to publish their lists on early mornings.
And all at once. The games begin on the same starter block.
Friday nights aren't exactly primetime for televised events. While the Recording Academy undboutedly wants to emphasize the prestige of the Album of the Year category, I think they may be diluting their message by splitting up the announcement and applying tinsel and a red and green sheen. Granted, broadcasting “Grammy Nominations Concert” on Mondays at 8 p.m. haven't garnered the excitement and viewership organizers may desire (even with repeated visits from Taylor Swift), but at least on Tuesday morning everyone wakes up with a full list of contenders in front of them. The full list of nominees, instead, will be complete on a Saturday morning this year.
The first round of voting started on Oct. 16 and are due Nov. 5; an excess of 17,000 recording submitted are eligible. The 2015 Grammy Awards will air on CBS on Feb. 8, from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.