Nashville Went Looking...

And it found.

Nashville is getting into some cool casting for its upcoming fifth season – its first on its new home, CMT.

Not only is Jen Richards coming to town, now, so is Murray Bartlett. You know...Dom, from HBO’s Looking).

The actor is going to take on the recurring role of Jakob Fine, a very charismatic and successful men’s fashion designer. (That the character is a stud should be obvious.)

This could get interesting for someone.

For Chris Carmack’s Will Lexington, perhaps?

Photo: GettyImages.com.

Pushing Nashville Forward

A face familiar to anyone who watched and enjoyed and learned from E!’s now-cancelled I Am Cait is bound for CMT’s Nashville.

Emmy-nominated transgender actress-activist Jen Richards (Her Story) has been tapped to recur on the show’s upcoming fifth season, as Allyson Del Lago, a tough, yet understanding physical therapist who helps one of our faves get through a really tough patch.

My money, of course, is on Hayden Panettiere’s Juliette Barnes, who was last, well...not seen being in a plane crash.

Richards’ casting is a watershed moment for CMT, which had yet to feature an out transgender performer or a transgender storyline on its air.

Yay! Forward movement’s the best!

Nashville will sing again on Jan. 5.

Photo: NBCNews.com.

Nashville 2017!

Well alright and eye-haw.

CMT has gone and scheduled TV’s back-from-the-dead Nashville for a two-hour fifth-season premiere next Jan. 5, y’all!

Stars Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere will be back as Rayna Jaymes and Juliette Barnes, natch – but rumor has it the former will appear on only 10 of the show’s proposed 22 Season 5 episodes.

Because Nashville loves itself some drama?

I mean, why. Why must you put us through this, Connie? We want you to stay.

Don’t leave us and take away Rayna Jaymes.

Photo: TVEquals.com.

Still the Queens of Nashville

They’re on!

Emmy nominees Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere are sticking with their beloved TV show, Nashville, when it moves from ABC to CMT to air a fifth season some time soon.

Also expected back as regulars? Charles Esten, Jonathan Jackson, Clare Bowen, Sam Palladio, Lennon and Maisy Stella, and Chris Carmack.

Aubrey Peeples and Will Chase will be leaving Nashville, but I expect them to guest on the early new eps, to wrap up their storylines proper.

A premiere date is still TBA.

Photo: Hallels.com.

The Day the Music Lived

The sun will shine on TV’s Nashville again, Nashies!

CMT, my new favorite network, has picked up the show for a full 22-ep fifth season that will premiere at a date TBD. hulu will continue to stream the episodes of the show the day after they debut on CMT.

Loves it. We get to find out what happened with Juliette’s (Hayden Panettiere) plane and, fingers crossed, see Connie Britton’s Rayna Jaymes sing another song with the girl.

Photo: FashionNStyle.com.

Hough-in’ It to Nashville

Coming up on TV’s Nashville, things are gonna get a little Derek Hough.

The Dancing with the Stars pro has signed on to play a disarming movie star who comes into contact with all the movers and shakers of the city’s musical scene.

Meaning Rayna Jaymes (Connie Britton) and, more than likely, Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere). Although it would be a struck of genius to pair him with Chris Carmack’s gay country singer Will Lexington.

Oh yes it would be.

Photo: UsMagazine.com.

Live From Nashville

Nashville has done the live thing a few times before, and the TV show’s about to do it again.

For its third season premiere in September.

But there’s a twist.

The show’s going to tape its first ep of the season as usual, but then it’s gonna cut away to two live performances: one by Deacon Claybourne (Charles Esten, pictured here) and another by Chris Carmack’s closeted singer Will Lexington (OK...I know Will came out on the last season finale – but I am not sure how out he is now, so hush).

That’s kind of a first, right?

In other Nashville news...Laura Benanti is joining the show for a few eps, as a up-and-coming country star who befriends Rayna Jaymes (Connie Britton).

Photo: AmericanSongwriter.com.

MOBama Gets a Little Bit Country

Nashville is on a roll, y’all.

The stars of the TV show are going on tour, Michelle Obama is popping up for a guest turn....

Oh yeah – the friggin’ FLOTUS is gonna hang with Connie Britton’s Rayna Jaymes on an episode of the show next month.

MObama, of course, will be playing herself as she is recruited by Rayna to help throw a charity concert at Fort Campbell (whatever that is).

Good to see Nashville might just live to see a third season: I enjoy that show one heckuva lot. And, I mean, it’s not like Obama would board a sinking ship, right....

Photo: GuardianLV.com.

Nashville Takes the Road

It was only a matter time, and it is not a moment too soon: The stars of TV’s Nashville are taking their act on the road.

Which tells me ABC must still have some faith on the show, which has not been as much a part of the conversation during its second season as it was during its freshman year.

So, led by Connie Britton Hayden Panettiere Charles Esten, Nashville’s PYTs – Clare Bowen, Jonathan Jackson, Sam Palladio (pictured here with Bowen), and Chris Carmack – will perform three shows, mostly on the East Coast, beginning on April 25 in Chicago. Then it’ll be on to D.C. on May 4, and New York City on May 6. There, Will Chase will take his guesting on the show to a new level by guesting on the road show. (Tickets go on sale on April 4, btw.)

Now. Who wants to bet at some point the true stars of Nashville will be making a special appearance on the tour. It’s not like the powers that be really think we can believe Rayna Jaymes or especially Juliette Barnes will be left out, right? If so, they got the “Wrong Song,” indeed.

I mean, c’mon, y’all.

Photo: Blogs. Tennesseean.com.

Nashville-bound Brit

He’s been to Forks, Wash., as a vampire, to Mystic Falls as a vampire hunter, and now Charlie Bewley is headed to Nashville.

As neither, I presume.

The Brit is gonna have to keep his wits about him fang-sharp, though, for he will recur during the sophomore season of the Connie Britton-led ensemble this fall, which, btw, promises to start on quite an intense note.

Bewley, meanwhile, will play a charming businessman who becomes quite close with Hayden Panettiere’s Juliette, beginning on the third episode back.

Photo: People.com.

The Talent Poacher

Ever since I moved from sunny Miami to mostly cloudy-so-far-(and-it’s-summer!) Lima, I have been missing TV’s Nashville.

Which means I haven’t watched the ep featuring the long-awaited duet between fading country queen Rayna Jaymes (Connie Britton) and princess-on-the-rise Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere) – but, this TV addict will be a TV addict, and he’s caught the performance of their “Wrong Song” on the YouTube.

And I likey.

I likey a lot.

Thank goodness the cable company down here is only like, two weeks behind dubbing/subtitling and airing new eps, so.... I’ll be all caught up in a hot sec.

A good thing since the show has just cast Ming-Na as a record executive from L.A. who is dead-set on luring Rayna away from Nashville and into the way she ought to be treated, thankyouverymuch.

Photo: BleedingCool.com.