Good news for you Nashville fans out there, when the show returns after being rescued from cancellation by ABC, stars Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere will reprise their characters for the show’s fifth season. I, personally, am giddy with excitement.

The show got picked up by CMT (and will also be available on Hulu for my fellow “cord cutters”) after a successful “bring back this TV show” social media campaign. Side note: could we try this with The Muppets? According to TV Line, Connie is set to return as country music queen Rayna James and Hayden will be back as her sometime rival, sometime mentee Juliette Barnes. Highlight for a mild spoiler: This likely means that Juliette didn’t die in a plane crash, as was hinted during the show’s 4th season finale and now, she, Avery and baby Cadence can have a happy reunion.

Will Chase, who played Luke Wheeler, won’t be returning, which is sad, but his character wasn’t really doing much. I do think Luke got a raw deal as far as his relationship with Rayna, but now who is going to champion Will Lexington’s music career? It’s also been reported that Aubrey Peeples, who played Layla, is also not returning. No big loss there, her character was awful. Let’s just hope she doesn’t go on to make a sequel to that horrendous Jem movie.

My second favorite actor after Jon Hamm, Charles Esten (DEACON!), Sam Palladio (Gunnar), Jonathan Jackson (Avery), Clare Bowen (Scarlett), Lennon Stella (Maddie), Maisy Stella (a/k/a eternally sad Daphne), and Chris Carmack (Will Lexington, stone cold hottie) are also rumored to return. It’s not Nashville without Deacon. Rayna and Deacon were on slightly shaky ground when the last season ended, I hope they can use the new season to reconcile. Dayna 4-eva.

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