“Nashville” has added two new showrunners for the show’s yet-unannounced fifth season, according to multiple media reports.
Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick, who have produced series such as “thirtysomething” and “My So Called Life,” will take over for departing showrunner, Dee Johnson.
The move will no doubt give hope to “Nashville” fans, as the show has not yet been renewed for a fifth season. After all, ABC has already handed out early renewals to 15 series, and “Nashville” was not among them.
Paul Lee addressed the future of “Nashville” in January at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour, giving the Hayden Panettiere/Connie Britton country music drama a vote of confidence.
“We don’t have any plans to finish ‘Nashville,’” Lee said at the time. “We have an incredibly passionate audience. The ‘Nashville’ audience grows by a large amount in our delayed viewings. So we make all of these decisions when we sit down in May; but, no, at this point, no plans for ‘Nashville’ other than to keep it going.”
“Nashville’s” fall finale dropped to an all-time series low 0.8 rating in the key 18-49 demographic, and delivered a new rock bottom 4.137 million total viewer, per Nielsen’s Live + Same Day data.
For what it’s worth, the October 2012 “Nashville” series premiere landed a 2.8 rating in the main demo, and 8.928 million viewers overall. That’s an admittedly unfair comparison, but it provides a little context on the overall decline to-date.