Behind the Scenes of ABC Nashville

It’s hard for a television show to make it past its first season. From 2009 to 2012, 65 percent of network TV programs didn’t; in the same period only 39 percent of new shows on ABC received a second season. The odds were against Nashville’s survival, and probably also against its production in Tennessee. First-year costs for the new show were high; each set at the show’s soundstage was constructed with an almost clinical devotion to detail, which required as many builders, painters, and electricians as it would to rebuild the Bluebird itself. Directors and writers were flown from California to Tennessee when their episodes were filmed, and producers were relocated.
Photo ABC/Katherine Bomboy-Thornton

“This city feels different than any other place we’d find to shoot, x93 (show producer) Callie Khouri says. “This is a city that really has a soul. x93

Photo ABC/Mark Levine

Photo ABC/Mark Levine

The city had some catching up to do if it was going to keep its namesake show. During Season One, the show was able to recoup 32 percent of its production costs in tax credits, but a state law passed since then set a new 25 percent cap. After ABC unsuccessfully lobbied to let Nashville be grandfathered in to the higher cut, it was up to city and state officials to fill the gap if they were going to keep the show and the $40 million in revenue estimated to come with it. So, everyone ponied up: the state of Tennessee contributed $12.5 million, Metro government chipped in $500,000, and the CVB and Metro’s Event Marketing Fund each contributed $125,000.
Photo ABC/Mark Levine

Photo ABC/Mark Levine

It was always Khouri’s intention to show America what Music City insiders already knew. Rayna James, Juliette Barnes, and Scarlett O’Connor are not fictional; they’ve existed here since lower-Broad buskers first filled the air with the pluck-picking of heartbreak.
Photo ABC/Mark Levine

Photo ABC/Katherine Bomboy-Thornton