Nashville Is Losing 2 Regular Characters When it Moves to CMT

Nashville will be a couple of singers short when it arrives on CMT. 

According to TVLine, Will Chase and Audrey Peeples won’t be returning for the series’ fifth season, when the former ABC show settles into its new home at CMT. 

This will make sense (and could be seen as good news) for fans of the show, given the fact that Luke (Chase) doesn’t really have a lot to do after the end of his engagement to Rayna (Connie Britton), and after his pal Will seemed to find success in spite of all the homophobia he was dealing with. 

Layla (Peeples), meanwhile, ended season four by having all her plans to destroy Juliette (Hayden Panettiere) ruined by Avery (Jonathan Jackson), and learning that her new album was about to be a success, even when her personal life was going down in flames. 

There’s not much more for either of them to do, so with the move and the change of showrunners, Chase and Peeples’ exit is not much of a surprise. 

After being canceled by ABC and ending on a last-minute cliffhanger that questioned whether Juliette would make it back to her baby and ex-husband alive, Nashville was saved from TV death by country music network CMT. 

“CMT heard the fans. The wave of love and appreciation they have unleashed for Nashville has been overwhelming,” Brian Philips, president of CMT, said in a statement. “Nashville is a perfect addition to our evolving line-up of big music specials, documentaries, and original series. We see our fans and ourselves in this show and we will treasure it like no other network. Nashville belongs on CMT.”

Nashville’s season 5 premiere date has yet to be announced, but whenever it does return, it will have new showrunners Ed Zwick andMarshall Herskovitz at the helm