“The Road” has crowned its winner. CBS’ live country music singing competition narrowed down its field of twelve to a single artist: Adam Sanders. Sanders was among the final three to perform at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville for the series finale, with Channing Wilson as the runner-up and Cassidy Daniels in third. After proving his mettle in a series of live shows opening up for Keith Urban, Daniels took home every aspiring country singer’s dream: a cash prize of $250-thousand, a slot at Stagecoach 2026, a performance at the Red Bull Jukebox show at The Pinnacle in Nashville next year, and (perhaps most important), a recording contract. Before appearing on the show, Sanders cut his teeth writing hit songs for other country stars, including Cole Swindell’s “Ain’t Worth The Whiskey” and Dustin Lynch’s “Hell of a Night.” He’s also written songs for Blake Shelton, Luke Bryan, Dierks Bentley and Scotty McCreery.

The NFL continues to cozy up to country stars for their halftime entertainment. After Post Malone blew fans away on Thanksgiving Day during halftime of the Dallas-Kansas City game, they’ve now invited Lainey Wilson to play during the break in the Christmas Day matchup between the Detroit Lions and the Minnesota Vikings. She’ll be joining Snoop Dogg and the real-life voices behind Hunter/X, though there’s no word yet on how those performances will be staged (solo or collab). Lainey has done the halftime thing before, performing during halftime on Thanksgiving Day 2024 alongside Jelly Roll. While the NFL continues to look elsewhere for their Super Bowl halftime shows, it seems country stars are more than welcome to perform at regular season games. The game kicks off at 4:30p ET on Netflix.

Hulu is developing an unnamed series inspired by Miranda Lambert’s music, with Sony Pictures Television teaming up with showrunner Judalina Neira on the project. Described as “‘Big Little Lies’ gone honky-tonk,” the show centers on a complicated friendship as one woman helps the other flee an abusive marriage and attempt a fresh start in a small Texas town filled with secrets. Lambert is slated to be executive producer on the show as she heads into the 68th GRAMMYs with four nominations, including Best Contemporary Country Album for Postcards from Texas and Best Country Song as a writer for “A Song to Sing.” Her recent work also earned nominations for Best Country Duo/Group Performance for “A Song to Sing” with Chris Stapleton and “Trailblazer” with Reba McEntire and Lainey Wilson.

Keith Urban may be going through a tough personal time, but he still makes time for those that are struggling. The singer paid a visit to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville earlier this week, where he visited with sick children and led an acoustic sing-along. He also donated several guitars to the hospital’s music therapy program. In a statement, Meg Rush, MD, MMHC, president of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, said “Keith is a wonderful friend to our hospital with several visits over the years,” adding “His thoughtful and generous gift of guitars to our Music Therapy Program will help us continue using music as added therapy to bring comfort and healing to children during their hospital stay.”