The Grammy Awards’ earlier, trophy-heavy portion is getting a major distribution change in 2027. The Grammy Premiere Ceremony will stream exclusively on Disney+ on February 7, beginning at 2:30 p.m. Eastern. The event will return to Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater, placing the presentation of roughly 90 of the Recording Academy’s 100 awards on a major streaming platform rather than solely on the Grammy website.
That makes the Premiere Ceremony more central to the public-facing Grammy experience than it has been in prior years. Although the evening telecast carries the biggest pop-culture footprint, most Grammy winners are determined and recognized before its cameras go live. The move gives viewers a direct way to watch those categories, their acceptance speeches and the different musical communities represented across the ballot.
The principal Grammy show will follow at 7 p.m. Eastern from Crypto.com Arena. It will be simulcast on ABC, Disney+ and Hulu, while the Premiere Ceremony is set apart as a Disney+-exclusive stream. Together, the two programs create a full-day viewing plan: the afternoon recognizes the bulk of the awards, and the primetime broadcast delivers the performances and a more concentrated selection of trophies.
Why the Premiere Ceremony matters
“Premiere” can sound like a pre-show label, but it should not be confused with a minor side event. It is the ceremony where the overwhelming majority of Grammy categories are presented. With about 90 awards expected there, it includes a vast portion of the Academy’s work across genres and disciplines.
The distinction matters because the awards spotlighted in primetime do not tell the entire story of Grammy Sunday. Fans who care about particular technical, genre-focused or craft categories have historically needed to seek out the earlier presentation. A Disney+ stream could make that process considerably more straightforward for subscribers, while the broader platform placement may also put winners in front of viewers who otherwise only encounter the night’s headline categories.
The 2025 Grammy results offer a recent illustration of why the timing is meaningful. Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” received Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song and Best Music Video during the earlier ceremony. The track later added Record of the Year and Song of the Year in the main show. Mustard accepted the three early awards on Lamar’s behalf.
In practical terms, that sequence means a viewer who entered only for the primetime broadcast would have missed a substantial portion of the song’s winning night. The 2027 arrangement does not change how the awards are voted on, but it changes where fans can watch a large share of the results arrive.
A decade-long Disney relationship reshapes Grammy viewing
The Premiere Ceremony move is part of a wider agreement between Disney and the Recording Academy that runs through 2036. ABC is taking over the annual main broadcast after CBS carried the Grammys from 1973 through 2026.
For audiences, “simulcast” is the key term attached to the evening program. A simulcast is the same broadcast made available on more than one service at the same time. In this case, the main Grammy ceremony will air simultaneously on ABC, Disney+ and Hulu. The earlier Premiere event has a different setup: Disney+ is its exclusive streaming home.
That division is notable because it preserves a conventional network-TV route for the primetime show while giving streaming a more definitive role in the day’s broader awards coverage. Disney+ is not merely another place to catch the main telecast; it is also becoming the required destination for the ceremony that distributes most Grammy trophies.
The schedule also places the two events at separate Los Angeles venues. The Premiere Ceremony returns to Peacock Theater, while the evening show is held at Crypto.com Arena. The gap between the 2:30 p.m. Eastern start for Premiere and the 7 p.m. Eastern start for the main program leaves room for the two productions to have distinct formats and priorities.
Fulwell takes on the earlier ceremony
Fulwell Entertainment will produce the Premiere Ceremony for the first time in 2027. The company has previously produced the main Grammy telecast, making the assignment an extension of its existing Grammy role rather than an entirely new relationship with the event.
Ben Winston, Eric Pankowski and Greg V. Fera are named executive producers for the Premiere Ceremony. An executive producer is generally responsible for high-level creative and production oversight; the title does not mean each person presents an award or appears on camera. The significance here is organizational: the earlier show will be handled by a team with established experience on the high-profile evening broadcast.
The Recording Academy has framed the Disney+ launch as an opportunity to bring the celebratory nature of the earlier ceremony to a larger audience. It remains to be seen how the production will shape its pacing and presentation for the platform, but the supplied details establish the central change: a ceremony formerly available through the Grammys’ own website is now moving into Disney+’s exclusive programming lineup.
For music fans, the immediate implication is simple. Anyone planning to follow an artist across every category in which they are nominated should account for the afternoon Disney+ stream as well as the primetime program. That is especially true in years when an artist is competing in genre-specific fields that may not appear during the ABC broadcast.
The 2027 ballot adds an R&B category distinction
The 2027 Grammy ballot will include Best R&B Collaboration or Duo/Group Performance, a new category recognizing collaborative performances or those credited to duos and groups. At the same time, Best R&B Performance is being renamed Best R&B Solo Performance.
Read together, those changes create a clearer split between solo R&B performances and collaborative or multi-artist work. The available information does not specify nomination rules beyond the category names, so it would be premature to draw detailed eligibility conclusions. Still, the structural intent is readily understandable: a solo performance will no longer share a category title with work by a duo, group or collaboration.
Category design can affect how viewers follow Grammy results, particularly at the Premiere Ceremony, where most of the Academy’s genre awards will be presented. Fans tracking R&B nominees will have another result to watch for in 2027, while the renamed solo field should make the nature of its contenders clearer at a glance.
What happens before Grammy Sunday
Nominees in all 100 Grammy categories will be announced November 16 beginning at 7:45 a.m. Eastern. The announcement will be available through Grammy.com and YouTube. Kehlani, Pharrell Williams, Olivia Dean and Herbie Hancock are among the scheduled presenters.
That announcement is the first major checkpoint for audiences trying to plan their viewing. It will establish which artists and recordings are competing in the new R&B collaboration field, which categories may be decided during the Premiere Ceremony, and which names could carry momentum into the evening telecast.
Music awards programming is only one part of a crowded entertainment calendar—other major televised events are also lining up musical guests and performers—but the Grammys’ scheduling change has a distinct practical consequence. For 2027, the complete awards-day experience is explicitly split between an exclusive Disney+ afternoon stream and a three-platform primetime simulcast.
How to watch the 2027 Grammys
- Grammy Premiere Ceremony: February 7 at 2:30 p.m. Eastern.
- Premiere platform: Disney+ exclusively.
- Premiere venue: Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
- Main Grammy ceremony: February 7 at 7 p.m. Eastern.
- Main-show platforms: ABC, Disney+ and Hulu.
- Main-show venue: Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
- Nominee announcement: November 16 at 7:45 a.m. Eastern on Grammy.com and YouTube.
The headline change is not that the Grammy Awards are becoming streaming-only. The primetime show will remain widely available across broadcast and streaming. Instead, the Academy is elevating the often-overlooked portion of Grammy Sunday—the ceremony responsible for most of the awards—by making Disney+ its exclusive home for 2027.
