Kids' Choice Awards 2026 Nominees: BTS, BLACKPINK Nominated

by Hannah / Oct 09, 2026 08:35 PM EDT

BTS has three nominations for the 2026 Kids' Choice Awards, and BLACKPINK is in the same group category. Nickelodeon announced the nominees Thursday, Oct. 8. The ceremony airs live Saturday, Nov. 14, at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and Nickelodeon, with Alex Warren hosting. CBS is presenting the show for the first time.

BTS is nominated for Favorite Music Group or Duo, Favorite Album ("Arirang") and Favorite Song ("Swim"). The group category also includes BLACKPINK, Jonas Brothers, Maroon 5, Twenty One Pilots and Weezer.

"Arirang" is up against albums by Taylor Swift ("The Life of a Showgirl"), Drake ("Iceman"), Sabrina Carpenter ("Man's Best Friend"), Justin Bieber ("Swag"), Bruno Mars ("The Romantic"), Cardi B ("Am I the Drama?") and Olivia Rodrigo ("you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love"). "Swim" faces songs from Bieber ("Daisies"), Rodrigo ("drop dead"), Ariana Grande ("hate that i made you love me"), Mars ("I Just Might"), Carpenter ("Manchild"), Swift ("The Fate of Ophelia") and Benson Boone ("The Time of My Life").

Both the album and song fields have eight entries, and Swift appears in each, so BTS faces her in two categories. Swift leads all individual nominees with six. Grande and Carpenter have five each, according to Variety. The Kids' Choice Awards are decided by fan voting. Coverage of the announcement did not say when voting opens or how fans can cast ballots, so check Nickelodeon's official channels for those details. "KPop Demon Hunters," the Netflix animated film built around a fictional girl group, is also among the nominated films.

With BTS and BLACKPINK both in Favorite Music Group or Duo, K-pop fans will be splitting their votes between two groups in a field of Western bands, a different setup from years when a single K-pop act carried the category.

BTS has history here. The group won Favorite Music Group four years running, from 2020 through 2023, the most in the category. Stray Kids took the category in 2025 and is not among this year's nominees.

BTS's 2021 sweep came with "Dynamite," which won Favorite Song, Favorite Music Group and Favorite Global Music Star in the same night. The group first won a Kids' Choice trophy in 2018, in Favorite Global Music Star.

The nominations arrive while BTS is on the road. The "Arirang" world tour is in Lima this week, with Santiago, Buenos Aires and São Paulo to follow. The Latin American leg ends in São Paulo on Oct. 31, two weeks before the Nov. 14 broadcast.