CMT has announced that Nashville will return for a new 16-episode season, premiering early next year. CMT grabbed the show after it was canceled by ABC after four seasons.
The network also revealed a Nashville midseason premiere date of Thursday, June 1 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
“The devoted 'Nashie' fan base has generated record-breaking numbers for CMT,” said CMT president Brian Philips. “Nashville ranks as the network’s highest-rated and most-watched show in the network’s history, averaging 2.1M weekly viewers (L+7).”
Over the course of the first half of the season, Philips added, the series notched nearly 16 million total viewers on CMT alone and nearly 23 million on CMT and Nick at Nite.
Rachel Bilson and Kaitlin Doubleday will join the series in the second half of season five. In addition, Jeff Nordling will recur in the role of Brad Maitland, narcissistic owner of the most successful record label in Nashville.
The series is executive produced by Marshall Herskovitz, Ed Zwick, Steve Buchanan and Callie Khouri. Khouri created the show.
CMT is releasing Monday a video preview highlighting what’s to come in the back half of the season including new footage and commentary from Herskovitz, the showrunner.
