Though the TV season is already a few weeks old, tonight counts as one of the biggest rollouts of fall, with three high-profile premieres on three networks, including my favorite pilot of an admittedly anemic batch.
Even in a better season, ABC's Nashville (10/9c) would stand out, making beautiful music and juicy drama with its sensationally entertaining medley of backstage rivalries, family and political shenanigans, and enough sexy-sudsy twists to transform Music City into Sin City. Can you enjoy Nashville if country music isn't your thing?
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Nashville, the city, and Nashville, the country music industry, are expecting big things from Nashville, the new fall drama from ABC. The serialized drama, which stars Connie Britton as an country singer juggling her home life and struggling to remain a relevant artist, might not have made it on the air a few years ago.
But just as country music is moving toward the mainstream, the mainstream is gravitating toward country music — and TV execs, hungry for audiences, are eager to tap into country's loyal fan base. "We know from our proprietary research that about 96 million Americans qualify as country music fans, based on their listening habits and purchase behavior," says Country Music Association marketing director Cory Chapman. "That leads to a big opportunity for a network to go after that audience."
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Showtime finished its 2011-2012 season with nearly 22 million subscribers and 22 Emmy nominations, with five of those in the four leading acting categories. Much of that honor goes to freshman drama Homeland, which is the most-nominated series for the network.
After sneak-previewing trailers for two upcoming series -- Masters of Sex and Ray Donovan -- David Nevins, Showtime's president of entertainment addressed this season's farewells to The Big C and Weeds and teased what's coming up for Dexter and Homeland, both of which will return on Sept. 30.
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Where were you when the Modern Family talent deal finally went down? If you were a member of the Television Critics Association, or one of the creators of ABC's most popular and acclaimed comedy, you were at the network's Friday night post-press tour party. You could actually feel the tension go out of the room — a tension that had clouded much of ABC's TCA day, a major distraction for entertainment president Paul Lee, who tersely deflected questions about cast negotiations during his press session.
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Move over, Smash and Glee: ABC's new series Nashville will soon be entering the musical spotlight.
Taking a cue from series like Desperate Housewives, One Tree Hill and Eli Stone, ABC's new country-music drama will be using the names of songs as its episode titles. To that end, TVGuide.com has learned exclusively that the second episode of the new series will be titled...
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