Ratings: ‘Nashville’ season 5 hits much stronger note

When “Nashville” first aired a “preview” event for their fifth season across several different networks last month, we admittedly were worried about the ratings that we were seeing. They weren’t good, and we were starting to think that maybe ABC made the right decision to end the show, at least in terms of dollars and cents.

However, we’re very much happy to be proven wrong today, at least in terms of the show making a big recovery that is making us think as though it could last well into season 6 depending on if the numbers hold. According to TVLine, the series across three separate airings on CMT, Encore, and Nick @ Nite drew a 0.8 rating in the 18-49 demographic, a decline of just 20% from its average for the fourth season when it was airing on a much larger platform on ABC. On the country-music network itself, the show drew a respectable 0.5 — that’s better than most of their other original programming.

It’s certainly not right to judge a show from one regularly-scheduled airing, but the big thing that these ratings show to us is that “Nashville” fans will follow the show anywhere, and that’s promising as we press onward through the rest of the season. We do like the sort of investment we’ve seen CMT make in it so far, given that it also includes an aftershow and allowing fans to have way more opportunities to be interactive as a result. Also, there’s something about a show featuring country music airing on a network that’s all about it that is exciting.

We’ll have some more information regarding the future of “Nashville” as time goes by, but for now, let us know in the comments what you think about the show’s start, and what it could mean for the future!

Also, head over here to get some further news regarding both the series and its aftershow following it up. (Photo: CMT.)