ABC’s “Nashville” Renewed for 3rd Season
For the last few weeks, folks in Nashville, television viewers, and the actors that comprise the cast of ABC’s hour long drama about Music City were wringing their hands and waiting for word if Nashville would be renewed for a third season. Producers had been playing hardball with the real Nashville, trying to wring out as many tax breaks and other incentives as possible to keep the production in Tennessee.
Talk at one point had the show moving to Texas or Los Angeles to continue production, if the show continued at all. As the week drew on and the announcements came down for other shows being renewed or cancelled on ABC and other networks, the fate of Nashville remained in limbo. But finally late Friday night, right after midnight Eastern Time, at tweet from ABC Music Lounge confirmed, “It’s official! @Nashville_ABC renewed for Season 3!!!”
The renewal is also for a full 22 episode season. There was talk of a shorter production cycle being one of the bargaining chips in negotiations.
Nashville, which is partially funded by the owners of The Grand Ole Opry, has been touted as being huge boom for tourism in Music City, while also becoming a forum to showcase worthy songs and talent that doesn’t normally make it on the radio. The show often portrays the ruthlessness of Music Row’s major labels and executives, and the struggles of many of its artists in sometimes stark authenticity, and in story lines that could be ripped right out of the newspaper.
READ: The Lessons Viewers Are Learning from ABC’s “Nashville”
The show has also been criticized for its over-dramatic nature, and sometimes being too harsh in its portrayals of the tribulations of country music, while some Nashville natives would rather not have the additional spotlight shined on their city that is already struggling to deal with rapid growth and an expanding economy.
Nonetheless, now Season 3 is a reality, and this news also pushes the series one step closer to the financially lucrative prospect of syndication. It also helps keep country music right at the forefront of capturing and holding the American consciousness as now one of the biggest, and most popular of the American music genres.
May 9, 2014 @ 10:24 pm
There has also been some talk about the show moving to Atlanta. That would make more sense than moving it to Texas or California.
May 10, 2014 @ 12:30 am
Timely posting as season one JUST premiered in NZ this very week – two years after it debuted in the states! I really enjoyed the first episode, in the opening scene Connie Britten was performing onstage at the Grand Ole Opry and in the second scene she was backstage and Little Jimmy Dickens was in the background. I really appreciated the authenticity of it and also the great cinematography showcasing how lovely Nashville is – the skyline & the beautiful architecture. As for residents complaining about the production, do they not realise the millions of dollars being pumped into their local economy via this production? Some people would whinge if their bums were on fire.
May 10, 2014 @ 12:50 am
Some people don’t like what millions of dollars being pumped into a city can do to it. In fact one may be a Nashville native who once sang about a girl from Christchurch, and regularly takes to Twitter to complain about some of those beautiful old buildings being torn down in the name of “progress”.
I personally can see the issue both ways. “Growth” is a double edged sword. Nobody likes congestion, but it sure is nice to eat.
May 10, 2014 @ 4:11 am
Would that Nashville native happen to have Townes as his middle name?
May 10, 2014 @ 10:27 am
Perhaps…
May 10, 2014 @ 4:08 am
I’m also in NZ and missed the first episode last week presuming it to be pop country trash…maybe I should give it a go?
May 10, 2014 @ 4:11 am
And I live in Christchurch xxx
May 10, 2014 @ 3:51 pm
Oh poor you, Angel. Not about missing Nashville but all your dreadful aftershocks and floods of late 🙁 Hope you are doing okay down there. Yes! Give Nashville a go. It’s not at the same level of the awesome US cable shows like Mad Men/Breaking Bad etc but certainly worth a look. Were you watching Fargo on SoHo when Nashville was on? I Myskyed it and haven’t watched it yet. Check out Nashville here:
http://tvnz.co.nz/nashville/s1-ep1-video-5940762
May 10, 2014 @ 1:27 pm
“Some people don”™t like what millions of dollars being pumped into a city can do to it.”
Yep, that sums up my biggest concern about the TV show pretty succinctly.
I am happy of course for the various tradespeople and businesses who benefit from the TV show and the attendant tourism that comes with it, but generally I have mixed feelings about almost every apsect of “Nashville.”
I love both Nashville and country music (which are two seperate, though somewhat interrelated entities) and this show brings certain kinds of attention to both of them, but whether that is, on the whole, a positive thing is not clear to me. The TV show is not dismal enough to be an embarrasment to the city, but not truly good enough for me to me reccomend it either.
Also, I would feel better about the growing popularity of “country” music if I thought it was happening for the right reasons, and if the mainstream part of the genre was not in such abysmal shape.
Carla, I appreciate your nice words about Nashville’s skyline and archetecture. As a Nashvillian, I agree. I have always thought Middle Tennessee to be a beautiful place, especially the natural attributes of the area, which rarely get talked about when people speak of Nashville in a music industry or tourism context.
I’m sure it is nowhere near as breathtaking as your New Zealand, which is famous worldwide for being gorgreous, but it has its own kind of homey beauty I think.
May 10, 2014 @ 3:58 pm
Hey Applejack, something I ALWAYS say about Nashville when I talk about is how beautiful and culturally rich it it is – stunning old buildings, art galleries and museums every where you look and FRIED PICKLES. Apart from Charleston, South Carolina it’s the most beautiful US city I’ve ever had the pleasure to visit. There’s a reason it was called ‘The Athens of the South’ back in the ’20s, huh? I loved my time there. Also, we drove from Nashville to Memphis and we were quite stunned at how similar to NZ it looked! We thought we were back home. Yeah, NZ has some stunning natural beauty but like everywhere not many of us get to open our curtains and see it. Most of us live in ugly big cities (nowhere near as pretty and historic as Nashville) or in out in the wop-wops. I’d give my right arm to live in Nashville – anyone wanna swap lives? Anyone?
May 11, 2014 @ 9:15 am
Carla,
Hey, thanks for replying. Wow, I’m glad you enjoyed your time in Tenneessee. I would still love to travel to NZ, big cities and wop-wops notwithstanding. I have known a lot of Americans who dream of traveling to your country: I think many view it as being an etheral wonderland, in part because of the images people see on the Lord of the Rings movies. Of course the LOTR series are fantasy films, but as always I find it so interesting (and disturbing) how TV and entertainment shape people’s perception of the world more than almost anything else. Likewise, Nashville tourists usually think it is a honky-tonk paradise, and go walking up and down lower Broadway in cowboy boots and ten gallon hats!
I am impressed that you know about the old “Athens of the South” slogan. I have always liked it.
As for fried pickles, I think I like them about as much as I like the ‘Nashville’ TV series, which is not so much! But I should probably give both another try at some point.
May 10, 2014 @ 4:46 am
You mentioned that the show has been “a forum to showcase worthy songs and talent that doesn”™t normally make it on the radio”. My wife and I saw “Striking Matches” last night at the Bluebird and they mentioned that 6 of the songs they’ve written have been on the show. They (Sarah Zimmerman & Justin Davis) also mentioned that T-Bone Burnett will be producing their first album which will be released this year. While we don’t watch Nashville, we’ve become big fans of SM. Sarah was breaking in a new mandolin last night and Justin broke one of the strings on his 6-string. Love their 4 song EP.
May 10, 2014 @ 5:00 am
Can’t say I’m really surprised by this. Even with its low ratings the show was partially funded by the Opry as mentioned here, plus you have to figure there’s extra revenue from music down loans. So all in all I can still see it being profitable for ABC even with less than stellar ratings.
Season 2 was a definite drop in quality and authenticity, with many elements of the show watered down to make it appeal to a more mainstream audience. Hopefully that trend doesn’t continue next season with the main characters taking to Country-Rap.
May 11, 2014 @ 12:17 pm
I assume Buddy Miller will still be the musical director (or what ever his title is). I do watch the show (mostly as a Britten fan) and even when the music has to go toward pop to fit a character, it is at least leaning toward better quality writing.
May 10, 2014 @ 7:52 am
Glad to hear that, since two of my faves (‘Community’ and ‘Suburgatory’) have just been cancelled.
It’ll be interesting to see where they go next with it…
May 10, 2014 @ 9:18 am
I can’t explain it, but I watch this show regularly and am happy that there will be a season 3. The music is a little too Americana for my taste and story arcs are way too dramatic, but it’s the only show on network TV I watch.
It would have been cool though if Rayna pulled a Willie and they rebranded the show Austin.
May 10, 2014 @ 9:22 am
The renewal is for 22 episodes:
http://tvline.com/2014/05/09/nashville-renewed-season-3-abc/
May 10, 2014 @ 10:25 am
Thanks. That would be the full allotment they were looking for.
May 10, 2014 @ 12:58 pm
I still haven’t had a chance to check this show out, but would love to see it. I’ve only seen a few clips featuring songs from Caitlin Rose and Kacey Musgraves. I think Connie Britton is an excellent actress so I’m not sure what I’m waiting for. If only it was available on Netflix.
I’m headin’ down Nashville for the first time in October to see Isbell and Sturgill at The Ryman. Maybe this show will be the perfect pre-game in the coming months. Thanks for the update, Trig!
May 10, 2014 @ 1:11 pm
I wouldn’t necessarily say that I “recommend” the Nashville TV show to anyone. I’m also not NOT recommending it either. I just think that it is a very important power player in the overall country music landscape that is interesting to study and worth paying attention to.
May 10, 2014 @ 1:17 pm
I hear ya. I take most major network shows with a grain of salt due to how much money/politics is involved in creating them. It still surprises me though that they’re able to showcase excellent music on such a big platform like this. Any shows, movies or docs that you’d recommend in preparation for a first Nashville trip? I’ve heard mixed reviews about “East Nashville Tonight”…
May 10, 2014 @ 1:22 pm
One of the best I’ve seen was actually made by people from Sweden and really delves into the underground scene in Nashville. It starts off a little strange but worth hanging with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m6z9KA64ns
You can find part 2 and 3 from there.
May 11, 2014 @ 5:57 am
I would have to think next season will be the last.If not,it’s going to start getting pretty dumb.They’re running out of storylines.What’s next,Hayden Panitwhatever having sex with an alien? Scarlett turns into a zombie? They’re going to have to end it someway!