| 35th GMA Dove Awards | |
|---|---|
| Date | April 28, 2004 |
| Location | Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee |
| Hosted by | Deion Sanders, Yolanda Adams |
| Television/radio coverage | |
| Network | No television broadcast UPN had rights, but cancelled broadcast after it was taped. |
The 35th Annual GMA Music Awards (the show had a name change in 2004-05) were held on April 28, 2004 recognizing accomplishments of musicians for the year 2003. The show was held at the Municipal Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, and was hosted by Deion Sanders and Yolanda Adams.[1]
Nominations were announced months earlier by Steven Curtis Chapman and Toby McKeehan.[2]
The event was transmitted live to theaters in 50 cities as part of Regal Entertainment Group "One Night Only" event. The livecast was shown at Regal Cinemas, United Artists Theatres, and Edwards Theatres.[1] There was no delayed television broadcast, as part of a controversial move by broadcast rights holder UPN, scorned by Sanders for leaving CBS' The NFL Today (UPN owned CBS) in favour of Disney's NFL Countdown in the weeks between the awards ceremony and broadcast date, cancelled the television broadcast. This move was similar to a 1989 incident on CBS' 60 Minutes when a story on Richard Petty intending to air on the show in the weeks before the Daytona 500 was cancelled following reporter Diane Sawyer's defection to ABC. (That story was later edited and rewritten with Harry Reasoner the following season.)
The ceremony was eventually broadcast in December 2004 on Pax (now Ion Television).[3]
MercyMe won Artist of the Year, plus two other awards, while Jeremy Camp was awarded New Artist of the Year.