Usually when a TV series builds up a character to be one of the sleaziest people in the medium, that person is kept around until well past his or her expiration date. But it looks like ABC’s Nashville is bucking that trend, as Eric Close (who plays the morally incompetent Teddy Conrad) will no longer be a series regular, and it’s not clear if he’ll be back on the show at all. Let’s all imagine how Teddy would be taking the news.
Yep, that's the face. ABC apparently isn’t getting official with the news just yet, but according to TVLine, Nashville’s producers are planning on re-straightening the show’s creative path out and putting the focus back on the music business. One might have thought a show called Nashville would have done this from the beginning, but Teddy’s actions have consistently pulled the subject matter into ridiculously dramatic and tawdry territories.
It’s fairly unlikely that we have actually seen the last of Teddy Conrad, given how his plotline has played out. (Spoilers to follow.) The Season 3 finale had him getting arrested in connection with using city funds to try and get his prostitute lover out of town. Although he had a chance to get himself out of trouble by implicating others, it would have also gotten his ex-wife Rayna in trouble, as she unwittingly used illegally obtained money to get her label up and operating. The pair also have two children together, Daphne (biologically his) and Maddie (legally his), so it seems likely that Teddy will have to return at some point to give his family members young and old some kind of closure with his sinful past.
As far as where Eric Close’s career might go outside of the capital of country music, he’s set to reprise his recurring role on one episode during Season 5 of Suits as lawyer Travis Tanner. He had a part in Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper, so it’s possible he might focus more of his attention on the big screen in the future. So long as his characters stay away from pricy ladies of the night, he should be safe.
Amazingly enough, we called for Teddy to get killed off of Nashville a while back, and even though the character is still presumably breathing, we’ll take that as a victory. Find out what will happen next for these characters when the show returns to ABC for Season 4 on Wednesdays this fall.
