‘Nashville’ Launches Its New Life As Connie Britton Promises To Be ‘In For The Duration’

Premiering in 2012, Nashville has had a long run already with ABC, but it seems that Nashville just hasn’t outlived its stay on television yet, because CMT has picked up the series, saving it from cancellation. The series will return and has managed to keep most of its cast, proving fans aren’t the only ones who still have great faith in the series, which tells the story of rivalry between performers in the country music capital of the world. As the premiere of Nashville on CMT nears, star Connie Britton talks about the show and shares her decision to stick with the series for as long as it’s in her hands.

Connie Britton On Outliving Nashville Showrunners And Delivering A New Vision

The cancellation and subsequent move of Nashville from ABC to CMT is certainly something to look forward to, but, as Taste of Country reveals, the question of the show’s fate led many fans to worry over the return of their favorite stars. Among those concerns was the question of whether Connie Britton would return to Nashville as Rayna Jaymes, but the actress has confirmed that she plans to stay with the show for as long as it endures.

“I’m in it. I’m in. I’m in for the duration and we’re about to start a new season,” Connie said, during an interview with Ellen DeGeneres.

Ms. Britton added that she’s excited for fans, who she credits for saving the series, because there have been some behind-the-scenes changes that will affect Nashville‘s future on CMT.

“And it’s an exciting new season because we have new showrunners, so we have new writers and the stories, I think, are going to be really… it’s gonna get us back to what Nashville is about and what the characters are and what the town is and the music is,” says Connie Britton.

Connie says the overriding reason she took on the Nashville role in the first place was because it forced her to live outside of her comfort zone, when it came time to perform on stage. Britton says the thought of singing for a television audience “scared the heck out of me,” and that’s one thing that hasn’t changed, especially now that Nashville will find its home on CMT.

“So I said I wanna sing, that would be a really incredible thing to do as an actor. It scares me every single time,” says the Nashville star. “It’s good to do something new that scares the hell out of you.”

Nashville Already Has An Impressive List Of Guests For Its New Season On CMT

While it’s exciting for fans to know that the series regulars are returning with the show’s new season, part of Nashville‘s charm is its line-up of guest stars from the country music community, and as Lexington Herald Leader shares, that trend hasn’t been lost with the show’s move. In fact, the new season of Nashville promises to deliver an even more ambitious string of guests, beginning with Grammy winner Rhiannon Giddens.

Giddens, who grew up practicing music on instruments unique to the country music genre, like banjos and fiddles, is also one part of the all-black string band, Carolina Chocolate Drops.

“It is time for the real history of country music to have more of a highlight, for people to know that there were lots of black people who played the banjo, that the string band itself came from plantation culture,” Giddens said.

Also set to appear on Nashville will be writer-actress-producer Jen Richards. Jen’s casting in Nashville will be a barrier-breaking role, as Richards is the first “out” transgender actress to perform in a CMT series.

Richards jumped at the chance to audition for the opening in Nashville, partly because there are still too few roles for transgender actors. For Jen, it’s especially difficult, because she often loses out to men, because she looks too feminine to fill the role of a transgender character.

Living and working in the south, Jen says she has strong feelings about the “bathroom bill” proposed in so many of the southern states, and while the Tennessee version of the bill was defeated, the North Carolina bill passed, which is where Richards’ family lives. Nashville will address the issue in a later episode.

“That law was only possible, people could only draft that and put it through and actually vote for it and support it, because they don’t know trans people,” Richards said. “It’s because we’re not on TV shows. We’re not in the movies.”

Nashville is set to debut on CMT on Saturday, January 7.

[Featured Image by ABC]