Season 5 of the American musical drama TV series “Nashville” will have a new home when it premieres on January 5, 2017.
From previously being aired on ABC during its first four seasons, “Nashville” Season 5 will be aired on CMT after the network rescued the TV series from cancellation.
CMT will not be altering much with “Nashville” as Season 5 shall have a full order of 22 episodes too, the same number of episodes per season that the TV series had during its four seasons on ABC.
If any, the only thing that changed, as far as “Nashville” is concerned, is its premiere date. The show normally premieres on ABC during the fall and ends during spring of the following year.
However for Season 5, “Nashville” will be making a midseason premiere at the start of the year and likely to finish before or around summer, assuming it will have several weeks of break. But if will not have any break, it could also end Season 5 around late spring too.
Good for only 10 episodes
Filming is about to begin for “Nashville” Season 5 and there are now rumors going around that actress Connie Britton, who plays the lead role of Rayna James in the TV series, is only good for 10 of the 22 episodes of Season 5 of “Nashville.”
Apparently, the actress said that it is well stipulated in her contract with the show. However, there are also reports saying that the producers are still in talks with the actress in order to extend her contract and be in more episodes, if not all of the episodes of “Nashville” Season 5, reports the Parent Herald.
Many fans of the TV series expressed alarm on the possibility of losing Rayna James in the show, with some of them stating that the show would not be able to survive if the character is written off from “Nashville.”
They believe that as the central figure of the storyline in “Nashville,” Connie Britton as Rayna James is just indispensable in the TV series.
However, some are saying that fans should just brace themselves for whatever shall happen to Rayna James in the upcoming fifth season of “Nashville.”
Critics are also saying that new showrunners Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick, are known for killing their viewers softly and likes to see the audience bathing in tears so it would not be surprising if they suddenly decide to pull the trigger and kill off the character of Rayna James in “Nashville” Season 5, cites the Christian Today.
Moving the way of Hayden
Some are also saying that Connie Britton might take the same path that actress Hayden Panettiere, who plays the character Juliette Barnes in “Nashville,” back in Season 4.
She will still be part of the show but she is not necessarily seen for most of the episodes. It can be recalled that the young actress took an extended leave from “Nashville” due to postpartum depression.
With Rayna James out of the limelight, some critics and fans are saying that Panettiere is more than capable of holding the show together. It shall also open up possible new storylines to the show which could actually do well for “Nashville” eventually.
The other principal actors of “Nashville” who shall be joining Britton and Panettiere in Season 5 include Charles Esten, Sam Palladio, Jonathan Jackson, Clare Bowen, Lennon Stella, Maisy Stella and Chris Carmack.
It can be recalled that the Season 4 of “Nashville” ended in a cliffhanger when it was shown that the fate of Juliette, the character being played in the series by Hayden Panettiere, was put in limbo as her plane has gone missing. It is not clear if she is already dead or still alive.