© 2026 ABC News

\"It's really painfully obvious to me that you know me better than I do as far as what I should be doing,” Paisley told Underwood.

\"We lean on Carrie a lot,\" he added.

The pair admits that social media and a full news cycle have made hosting harder, particularly when it comes to the popular parody they do every year.

“We're working on it,” Paisley said. “The issue this year is the news changes every 15 seconds.”

This is great! But I thought @carrieunderwood already was an emoji-this one ?? #CMAawards pic.twitter.com/2n95Si3OSW

— Brad Paisley (@BradPaisley) November 7, 2017

“It's hard to get things that are relevant that we can kind of plan for,” Underwood added. “You know, something that everybody's talking about today, they may not be talking about in a week. So it's kind of trying to find that balance of things that people will still find funny, even in a week.”

Fans shouldn't expect the duo to get political -- unless it's all in good fun.

#CMAawards Music Event of the Year winner is \"Funny How Time Slips Away\" by @GlenCampbell & @WillieNelson! pic.twitter.com/obWcszS9sO

— CMA Country Music (@CountryMusic) November 8, 2017

“We've always said that we want to make fun of things that are funny,\" Underwood said. “It's not about any political party or any person or any anything. It's just about making fun of things that are funny.\"

Paisley added that the pair are \"equal opportunity when it comes to offense.\"

“Exactly. Equal opportunity offenders!” Underwood agreed.

The CMAs air tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern on ABC.

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