Blake Shelton calls his new ACM Awards co-host “a fan favorite”

The Academy of Country Music has lined up a star to co-host this year’s 48th annual ACM Awards with Blake Shelton, but the Academy is not saying who it is just yet. Instead, it’s enlisting the help of fans for a teaser campaign that will eventually reveal both the name of the co-host, and the date of the CBS show once fans tweet about it 25,000 times. (And yes, multiple tweets from the same person will all count toward the total.)

The new co-host will replace longtime host Reba McEntire, who announced last year she was bowing out.

In this teaser video, Shelton drops some hints about the new host. Including joking (we think) that the person is not good looking, and that they lowered the bar of stardom in recruiting for the role. “We finally thought, man, if we could just get somebody that can read, which is . . . this is country music, and that’s narrowing the field down,” he says.

In the only real hint, Shelton called his co-host “a fan favorite,” but went on to say it’s “to the point where I’m starting to feel the pressure from this person’s stardom creeping up into my territory. I’m hoping to use this opportunity of co-hosting with this person to completely disrupt and derail this person’s career.” He adds, “Look, it’s desperate times, and I had to take what I could get.”

While Miranda Lambert would have seemed like an obvious co-hosting choice, silhouettes used in a couple of different ACM teaser ads would suggest the new co-host is a man. Given Shelton’s “fan favorite” comment, we’re going to go out on a limb and predict it’ll be Luke Bryan whose fun, loose and easygoing personality should make him an excellent complement to Shelton.

Visit www.acmcountry.com for details on how to help give the ACM the kind of viral blast they’re looking for on this campaign. The announcement could come as soon as this weekend. We’ll keep you posted.