Could it be?! Nashville may see the light of day again, on CMT, after the hit musical-drama series was canceled by ABC in May.
According to Entertainment Weekly, CMT is “near a deal with the former ABC drama’s producers — Lionsgate, ABC Studios and Opry Entertainment — to continue the series into a fifth season.”
The site also reported that Hulu is interested in a “streaming component to the deal.” The first four seasons of the prime-time soap are currently available on the online service.
As previously reported, ABC announced on May 12 that it had canceled Nashville, less than two months after new showrunners Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick signed on for season 5.
“You know, I was not necessarily surprised,” Connie Britton (who plays singer Rayna Jaymes) told Entertainment Tonight on May 14. “And, so, I try to really put a silver lining on it and just say, ‘Hey, we got four years out of it and I really, really value the experience.’ ”
When asked about the possibility of the show being picked up by a streaming service, she added at the time, “You never know.”
The season 4 finale, which aired on May 25, sent fans into a frenzy after the series ended on a cliffhanger. At the end of the episode, Juliette Barnes’ (Hayden Panettiere) plane went missing and her child’s father, Avery (Jonathan Jackson), was waiting to learn her fate.