There’s No Backup Plan If Carrie Underwood Goes Into Labor Prior to the CMA Awards
No one really knows how pregnant Carrie Underwood is, because she hasn't shared her due date. Context clues indicate the baby might be here sooner than we think. A worst case scenario — at least as far as the 2018 CMA Awards are concerned — is Underwood going into labor prior to Wednesday night's (Nov. 14) show.
"We should be okay," Underwood said on Sunday, smiling after an unnerving pause. She was sitting alongside CMA co-host Brad Paisley at a press conference to kick off the annual CMA Radio Row remotes, which took place on Monday and Tuesday in Nashville.
"I got a little ways to go."
Moderator Lon Helton joked that Peyton Manning should be on standby, since he does so well with Paisley in the Nationwide commercials. The two actual co-hosts told the Country Countdown USA radio host they're not too worried — in fact, they have no Plan B.
Of course, fans remember that we've been here before. With her first child, Underwood announced she was pregnant in September 2014 and gave birth in late February 2015. This year she made the announcement in August — a healthy pregnancy that came after three miscarriages. A December or January birth would be a safe guess.
The 35-year-old and husband Mike Fisher have remained tight-lipped about all the details, not even revealing the baby's sex. At the 2014 CMA Awards, Underwood revealed she was having a boy during the broadcast — a moment that became an all-time great Brad and Carrie moment.
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She admits that hosting the show while pregnant slows her down in getting from Point A to Point B, so producers were considerate in not asking her to walk into the crowd much. She also hints that she'll have fewer wardrobe changes than usual, although that may be because it's extremely difficult to find designer gowns for pregnant women.
"Fancy designers do not make things with this shape," Underwood said, waving her hand over her belly.
"They do, but they're for men," Paisley fired back.
2018 will mark the eleventh time Underwood and Paisley have co-hosted the CMA Awards. In the past the pair have had fun with politics — "Obamacare by Morning" (a parody of George Strait's "Amarillo by Morning") and "Before He Tweets" (a parody of Underwood's "Before He Cheats") are two memorable political jabs. But that won't happen this year. Paisley tells Taste of Country politics aren't funny to him these days.
"To me, I wanna do fun stuff," he says. "I don't wanna talk down, I don't wanna talk up — it's like, 'Let's have fun.' And let's talk about things that everybody can agree are funny."
During Sunday night's press conference, he did say there would be moments to recognize the tragedies in California, including a shooting at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks and the wildfires near Los Angeles.