‘Nashville’ CMT Premiere Gives Network a Five-Year Best

Nashville’s debut on CMT last Thursday night (Jan. 5) drew a considerably smaller audience than it had on ABC, but also landed the network its best original premiere numbers since 2012, according to the Hollywood Reporter. For the show’s four airings across CMT and Nick at Nite, the two-hour launch achieved just shy of a 0.8 rating among adults 18-49 with nearly two million viewers.

On CMT alone, where the series will debut original episodes before subsequent streaming on co-financier Hulu, the first airing averaged 1.2 million viewers and a .45 rating in the key demo. In comparison, the finale broadcast season of Nashville on ABC averaged a live 1.0 rating among adults 18-49 and 4.2 million viewers. With just DVR, no streaming, the drama rose to a 1.8 rating among adults 18-49 and 6.6 million viewers.

Since moving to CMT the show’s costs are now shared by CMT and Hulu, but the star-studded cast isn’t contractually obligated to stay beyond the current 22 episodes.

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Lorie Hollabaugh

Hollabaugh, a staff writer at MusicRow magazine, has over 20 years of music business experience and has written for publications including American Profile, CMA Close Up, Nashville Arts And Entertainment, The Boot and Country Weekly. She has a Broadcast Journalism and Speech Communication degree from Texas Christian University, (go Horned Frogs), and welcomes your feedback or story ideas at lhollabaugh@musicrow.com.

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