Music has gone through a lot of changes since the American Music Awards debuted on Feb. 19, 1974, as a fan-driven alternative to the Grammy Awards. American Music Awards 50th Anniversary Special, a two-hour special that aired on Sunday, Oct.
6, captured many of those changes in smartly curated segments and fresh performances. Fifty years is a long time, of course. Two of the three co-hosts of that first show (Roger Miller and Helen Reddy ) are no longer with us, nor is the show’s creator, legendary TV producer Dick Clark .
The show recently switched networks, from ABC to CBS, which aired this anniversary show and will air the next regular AMA broadcast in May. The original plan was for the AMAs to debut on CBS with a regular best-of-the-past-year broadcast. Someone had the bright idea to first remind the audience of the AMAs’ considerable history before relaunching the show (which has been on hiatus since 2022.
) Motown legend Smokey Robinson , who was the third co-host of that first show, introduced a segment on this anniversary show. He was one of six former AMAs hosts or co-hosts to appear, along with Gloria Estefan, Jennifer Lopez, Reba McEntire, Jimmy Kimmel and Cedric the Entertainer. The AMAs has had a far longer life than most expected – and that includes Clark himself.
In December 1973, Clark was working on the first AMAs. He knew a little publicity couldn’t hurt, so he found time for an interview with Billboard ’s Bob Kirsch which ran on page one of the Dec.