ABC aired the Billboard Music Awards from 2011 through 2016. The ceremony returned to television in 2011 after a five-year break, and ABC broadcast each edition during that six-year run.
The 2011 revival took place on May 22 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, with Ken Jeong as host. The 2016 ceremony, the final ABC broadcast in that stretch, was held at Las Vegas’s T-Mobile Arena and hosted by Ludacris and Ciara. This period helped re-establish the Billboard Music Awards as a major live television event.
Viewers sometimes confuse ABC’s run with the later NBC era. NBC began airing the ceremony in 2018, after the 2017 awards, and continued as its network home for subsequent editions, including 2022. The broadcast network is separate from Billboard magazine, which created and maintains the charts and awards but does not itself function as the television network.