ABC’s ‘Nashville’ finds its groove ahead of season 4

When viewers last saw the stars of ABC’s “Nashville,” things weren’t looking good.

The show’s season 3 finale was fueled by chaos. Alongside arrests and explosive arguments, two characters were left on the operating table — and one of them flatlined.

Thankfully, it’s a very different story behind the scenes.

Three years after the music industry drama first hit the airwaves, “Nashville” has found its groove. It has charmed critics, earned steady (if not massive) ratings and conquered the challenges of making a network TV show 2,000 miles away from Hollywood.

It’s also gained the acceptance of the real Music City — a town that greeted the show with skepticism when it began filming here in 2012.

“It's been a long haul,” showrunner Dee Johnson told The Tennessean. “And I think everybody's kind of gotten used to us being around.”

That’s a situation that most TV shows don’t get. For every “Empire” and “Scandal,” there are dozens of others that are quickly canceled — or never make it to air.

“It happens all of the time,” said cast member Aubrey Peeples (“Layla”), recounting a few of her short-lived projects. “It's just about hitting it right, and, fortunately, we've been able to ride this 'Nashville' wave for a while.”

That ride has had its share of bumps. From the outset, “Nashville” has been considered “on the bubble” by industry observers, with live viewer ratings (5 million-6 million) between a runaway hit and a failure.

Its future looked especially bleak at the end of season 2 in 2014. As negotiations with the city and state over economic incentives wore on, “Nashville” even considered moving its production elsewhere. It was also among the last shows ABC decided to renew that year.

That wasn’t the case with season 4. A $10 million incentive deal was quietly secured in May, and ABC announced “Nashville’s” renewal alongside some of the network’s most popular shows — even as its live ratings dipped slightly below the 5 million mark at the end of season 3.

But “Nashville” has proven to have value beyond its ratings. Big Machine Records has released six soundtrack albums of the show’s original music, and they’ve collectively sold more than 4 million digital tracks to date. There’s also a new syndication deal: In June AXS TV purchased the cable TV rights to the first three seasons.

A passionate community of fans (known as “Nashies”) keeps “Nashville” rolling, too. For example New York viewer Andrea Richeson has re-created characters and sets with LEGO bricks and auctioned them off for charity. The experience has “renewed my faith in the kindness of people," she told The Tennessean.

At the same time, the show’s behind-the-scenes crew has fine-tuned its own craft. Three years ago, Nashville’s shortcomings in film/TV infrastructure caused a few hiccups in the production.

“Even getting extras,” Johnson said. “That's something you really take for granted in L.A. and New York, but people have to be trained to be extras. It's not like you just stand there. You really have to know what happens on a set and what you need to do and who you're listening to. So it was a lot trickier, I think, in that first season. Now, I won't say we have it down to a science, but it's a pretty well-oiled machine.”

They’ve also picked their battles. While “Nashville’s” first episodes were packed with on-location scenes, sometimes the show needs to do more shooting on its set, located on a soundstage in East Nashville. That’s especially true during the winter months.

“You guys get major weather,” Johnson says with a laugh. “We've had a couple of times where it's like, 'Gosh, I don't know if we can do this exterior.' It's zero degrees, or it's icy.”

Still, they’re hoping this year to take cameras to new corners of Music City. Johnson says they’re looking into shooting at First Tennessee Park, the Nashville Sounds’ new stadium. Perhaps it’ll be a big concert scene, not unlike the one shot at Nissan Stadium at the end of season 2. Johnson credits the city’s hospitality for that one.

“To do that in L.A. or New York? We could have never pulled that off,” she said. “It would have been pretty much impossible. So that was a fantastic benefit of being (in Nashville), with the doors opening to us as they are."

Season 4 of ABC's "Nashville" premieres at 9 p.m. Wednesday.