It's hard to believe Carrie Underwood was once an amateur competitor on "American Idol," but her deep connection to TV viewers continued on last night's CMT Awards as the country music superstar took home her third straight, fan-voted Video of the Year Award.
"It's really hard to believe," Underwood said. "I've been doing this for nine years but every single second of those nine years you guys have been amazing."
This marked the fifth time she's won the CMT awards biggest prize and brought her up to 11 lifetime CMT "belt buckle" trophies, making her the award show's biggest winner ever.
Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line kicked off the show with a performance of their hit "This Is How We Roll" -- with some extra star power courtesy of Jason Derulo and ZZ Top, who mixed in their own hits "Talk Dirty" and "La Grange" -- which also won Collaborative Video of the Year.
A collab also ended the show, as Underwood performed "Somethin' Bad" with Miranda Lambert, who earlier won female video of the year for "Automatic."
In between, Underwood's fellow reality TV star Blake Shelton, a judge on "The Voice," won male video of the year winner for "Doin' What She Likes." John Legend, Jennifer Nettles and Hunter Hayes performed a twangy "All of Me," Kacey Musgraves and Lee Ann Womack paid tribute to Alan Jackson, who won the first CMT Impact award, by performing "Livin' on Love," Keith Urban performed "Cop Car" and Little Big Town played "Day Drinkin'."
Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie also performed their collab "Oh No/All Night Long," which won CMT Performance of the Year. "The fact that I have won an award with you is just amazing, buddy," said Bryan to Richie, who replied "All I can say is, if I'm having this much fun, let's do it again."
Full list of winner after the slideshow
Video of the Year
WINNER: Carrie Underwood – “See You Again”
Male Video of the Year
WINNER: Blake Shelton – “Doin’ What She Likes”
Female Video of the Year
WINNER: Miranda Lambert – “Automatic”
Group Video of the Year
WINNER: The Band Perry – “Done”
Duo of the Year
WINNER: Florida Georgia Line – “Round Here”
Breakthrough Video of the Year
WINNER: Cassadee Pope – “Wasting All These Tears”
Collaborative Video of the Year
WINNER: Florida Georgia Line, featuring Luke Bryan – “This Is How We Roll
CMT Performance of the Year
WINNER: Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie – “Oh No/All Night Long” (from 2013 CMT Artists of the Year)