Nashville Season 7 Plug Pulled: Boss Talks Cancellation, ‘Great’ Series Finale

Nashville exec producer Marshall Herskovitz has reflected on the CMT music drama’s cancelled Season 7 plans.

Speaking to TVGuide, Herskovitz says that while a seventh season would have been a long shot, he believed it was possible:

No, [going into Season 6,] we didn’t know [it would be the last]. But we had a strong suspicion because you know how the TV business works now. Everyone had a six-year contract and so, we knew it would be a very heavy lift to get to a seventh season. We thought it was possible, but we didn’t know for sure. We actually found out probably about a week before it was announced that the show was going to end.

However, Herskovitz insists the timing of the cancellation allowed the writers to plot out a ‘great’ ending:

But that gave us time to work out the end of the season so that we could really have a good finale for the series. This year in particular, we’re having really a lot of fun. It’s funny, there’s a bittersweet quality to it because everyone knows it’s the end but I think at the same time, it has in some way galvanized everyone. It’s like, “Okay, if this is our last year, let’s make it great.” And I think everyone feels that.

He added:

I think we certainly did not have in our heads some grand master plan for where this series was going to end up. I think what we wanted to do was do justice to each of the characters and to the journeys they’ve been on for the past six years. And give the audience some feeling of satisfaction that there was a reason why they watched these people go through these twists and turns and difficulties and triumphs and all of it, and to feel satisfied moving on.

The sixth and final season of Nasvhille premieres Jan. 4 at 9/8c on CMT.

What are your hopes for the sixth and final season of Nashville? Disappointed the series wont continue into Season 7?