‘Nashville’ Producers Trying to Sell the Show to Another Network
The music may not be over yet for TV's Nashville. Though ABC has canceled the show, its producers are trying to save Nashville by taking it to another network.
The decision to cancel the show was so sudden that even the actors didn't know about it until right around the same time the news broke online. There had been some positive signs that Nashville would get a fifth season; Lionsgate TV had hired two Emmy-winning producers to come in and help tweak the show, and they were reportedly working on storylines for next year when the news came down.
The show's loyal fans have been venting online since Thursday (May 12) when the story broke, speculating all manner of reasons why Nashville got the axe. But the producers of the show aren't packing up the sets and leaving town just yet; in fact, they're trying as hard as they can to save the show.
“#Nashies, we are working hard to find a new home for your favorite show!” Lionsgate writes on Twitter. “Thank you for your support & keep tweeting #BringBackNashville.”
The Hollywood Reporter confirms that other networks are being approached, and according to Entertainment Weekly, in a recent email Kevin Beggs, Lionsgate’s television group chairman, told other Lionsgate employees, “We never give up on a great show."
"We had four amazing seasons,” Opry Entertainment President and Nashville Executive Producer Steve Buchanan tells Country Aircheck. “I feel very fortunate that ABC supported us for four seasons and the city and the state helped make that possible. The music industry really rallied around the show, whether that was country radio or the musicians and songwriters in Nashville; everybody really came together and worked as champions of it.”
Nashville Mayor Megan Barry even expressed disappointment over ABC's decision, saying the city had been fully on board to help defray Nashville's production costs for a fifth season, as it has done in the past to help promote tourism.
Even if Nashville doesn't go on, its mark on the actors who made their home in Music City for four seasons is indelible. Series star Charles Esten says he'll be staying in the show's namesake city, no matter what.
“This show has brought me so many blessings that cancelling could never take away,” he says — especially the friendships that he, his wife and children have established. “We’re not going anywhere.”
The May 25 episode of Nashville will now serve as the series finale, unless the show does get picked up elsewhere. But at least fans will get some degree of closure. Esten says the show wrote and filmed alternate ways to wrap up the storylines so they would be “prepared for this contingency.”
'Nashville' Cast Respond to Cancellation
Why Was 'Nashville' Canceled?
See More Country Stars Who've Acted