It's official, Nashville fans. The musical drama has been renewed for a fifth season on CMT, with episodes to stream on Hulu after airing.

The renewal comes after prolonged negotiations between the show's producers, Lionsgate, and cable network CMT after ABC axed Nashville last month. One of the reasons behind CMT's decision to

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resurrect the Connie Britton-starred drama was the fan's continuing support for the show.

"CMT heard the fans. The wave of love and appreciation they have unleashed for 'Nashville' has been overwhelming," said Brian Philips, President of CMT 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."

Even though the show has a huge fan following, Nashville failed to impress ABC with its Wednesday 10PM slot. The network decided to pull the plug on the series after the musical drama recorded an average rating of 1.8 for the 18-49 demographic while targeting 6.7 million viewers.

Nashville season 5 will include a total of 22 episodes, which comes as a bit of a surprise since cable dramas usually run with abbreviated seasons comprising of 13 episodes.

Lionsgate had appointed showrunners Marshall and Ed Zwick to takeover the series should it get renewed. However, the show's production date and other casting details are yet to be announced by CMT.

Co-stars Hayden Penettiere and Connie Britton's participation in the upcoming season is still unclear and supporting cast members including Charles Esten are also yet to make their deals official with the network.

Nashville season 4 finale ended with a cliffhanger as the plane boarded by Juliette Barnes and her daughter disappeared into thin air.

Fans can finally look forward to what happens next in the storyline when Season 5 hits television screens.

TagsNashville Season 5, CMT, Hulu, Connie Britton, hayden penettiere, nashville, Nashville CMT, Nashville Hulu