There are few things more devastating for an avid television watcher than their favorite show being unceremoniously cancelled. While cancellation is unfortunate enough with a series that is in its infancy, it’s even more disappointing with a show that has been running for a few years. This was exactly the case when ABC cancelled the musical country drama Nashville after four seasons. Since then, fans of the series have been rallying against the cancellation, voicing their cries for more episodes on either a streaming service or another cable network. Luckily for them, that hope may becoming a reality soon.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, CMT is reportedly rather close to buying the rights for Nashville’s fifth season. The folks behind Nashville have been determined to continue the life of the series, and have been apparently shopping the series to a plethora of networks, as well as streaming service including Hulu, which has been known to resurrect cancelled shows from the dead, like The Mindy Project.
The need for Nashville’s fifth season largely comes from the way Season 4 ended. The finale contained a pretty giant cliffhanger that, if unresolved, has the potential to ruin the series as a whole. The finale, titled “Maybe You’ll Appreciate Me Someday” found Hayden Panettiere's character Juliette Barnes meeting with the father of her child and traveling my plane to reach him. But with her baby daddy patiently waiting at the airport, Juliette was nowhere to be seen. We were then shown that air traffic control had apparently lost Juliette’s plane after it issued distress call, with the show leaving it ambiguous if something tragic had happened to the young singer.
What’s more, apparently Nashville had filmed a more cheery and finale-esque ending to the series, but the higher ups decided to go with the cliffhanger, with hopes that the drama would have new life on another network. Pretty ballsy stuff.
All in all, CMT seems like the perfect fit for a new season of Nashville. Obviously the demographic of the network would suit itself well for a country-centric drama. Additionally, CMT already has the rights to air past season in syndication, so there is clearly an audience that would be more than thrilled to have new episodes air. With so many series getting new life in unlikely places, it seems that CMT is ready to cash in on the trend and hit the ground running with Hayden and Connie.
Of course, we’ll just have to wait to see if Nashville’s move becomes official. There’s sure to be a fair amount of red tape, contracts, and financial factors to take into account, although it certainly looks hopeful.
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