Kellie Pickler wins big at CMTs

Although Carrie Underwood stole the show with her closing performance of "All-American Girl" last night at the 2008 CMT Music Awards, it was Season 5 sixth-place finalist Kellie Pickler who was the biggest surprise of the night.

The 21-year-old native of Albermarle, N.C., swept all three categories she was nominated for (USA Weekend Breakthrough Video of the Year, Performance of the Year and Tearjerker Video of the Year), all of which were for her emotional video for "I Wonder." Although she was in Scottsdale, Ariz. (any reason in particular?), Kellie accepted her award for Breakthrough Video via satellite and could not contain her excitement, at one point exclaiming she had never won anything before and after rambling on for a few minutes, she jokingly told the cameras to get off her.

Bucky Covington had a mini performance as the show went into a commercial break, but came up empty handed awards-wise. And Carrie proved she was only human when she lost her two categories, but her performance more than made up for the disappointment. Diana DeGarmo also made a brief appearance when she introduced Kenny Chesney along with Gone Country costars John Rich, Maureen McCormick, Sisqo and Bobby Brown.

Meanwhile, Paula Abdul tried to hold herself together as she introduced Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, but her erratic swaying while on stage and "yelling" at a hooting and hollering fan behind her made her come off as detached (what else is new?)

The opening sequence of the show, in which a manic Trace Adkins went on a desperate search for tickets to the CMT Music Awards because Miley Cyrus was co-hosting was hilarious, as it featured cameos of people from Donald Trump to the three presidential candidates and even Larry the Cable Guy.

The CMT Music Awards show was held at Belmont University in Nashville.