Well Nashville fans, it appears our social media cries of #BringBackNashville haven’t fallen upon deaf ears. We very well may find out the fate of Juliette Barnes and our favorite fictional country artists. Variety has reported that the series may have been picked up for its fifth season by CMT (Country Music Television.) It’s a great move, as the cable network already has the syndication rights to seasons 1-3.

After it was announced that Nashville would be cancelled, Lionsgate, who produces the show, shopped it to other networks and streaming services. To make the series more appealing to these networks, the fourth season ended with a cliffhanger, leaving fans wondering if Hayden Panettiere’s character, Juliette, perished in a plane crash. Fans understandably lost their minds and started online petitions and social media campaigns to bring the show back.

According to Lionsgate’s head of television, Kevin Beggs, most of the cast is slated to return. He stated that the company has “long term deals” with the cast members and the showrunners Ed Zwick (who brought us My So Called Life) and Marshall Herskovitz. As far as season six and beyond, Beggs is optimistic, telling the press during a call last month, “These kinds of shows can go forever and ever — obviously that’s our hope and expectation, but we’ve got to do it one season at a time. So right now, we’re all about Season 5. So we hope to land Season 5 and keep talking about this show for years to come.” I like this Beggs guy. He spilled some additional “T” about his fourth season scheming to the The Hollywood Reporter:

“There’s a little short-term pain but ultimately long-term gain because we intend and are quite focused and are in substantive and serious conversations with multiple buyers about continuing the show on another platform… If we didn’t feel that was going to happen, we might have gone a different way.”

“The ending we ran was the ending always envisioned for this season. These things are crafted over weeks and months. In our estimation, to go with a quickly assembled too-easy wrap-up is more of a disservice to the fans who have invested four years in this great cast and these great stories. And there’s more stories to tell.”

“We’re not looking to write ourselves into a corner, and actually wrapping up stories in a somewhat saccharine way is the worst box you can put yourself in.”

[From The Hollywood Reporter]

So, “Nashies” you will soon be able to get your weekly dose of the dreamy Charles Esten and Chris Carmack in between reruns of Reba and episodes of Party Down South. Glad that Rayna and the gang will be back on the small screen. Now, if we can only get The Muppets back on TV…

Photos credit: WENN and Getty