ABC has granted a full season to its plucky rich people country drama Nashville, making it the network's first freshman drama to survive the year. Though it had been on the bubble alongside fellow newcomers Last Resort and 666 Park Avenue (whose official fate still remains uncertain, if dark as ever), Nashville seemed like a slightly more certain bet thanks to its critical championing and popularity among adults 18 to 49—particularly "upscale" adults who make over $100,000, whose fascination with the folksy signifiers of country music mirrors that of the show's wealthy characters, and whose devotion explains why the commercials during Nashville are always for candelabras and offshore bank accounts.
It's also helped make Nashville, on average, the No. 1 show among adults in its time slot, beating out even CBS' C.S.I. (despite having next to no horribly disfigured corpses). And this extension gives the Callie Khouri-created series an entire year for Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere to figure out who gets to sleep with their guitar player, Powers Boothe to glower at everything within the Tennessee state limits, and plenty of opportunities for precious little songbird poetry girl to dump pissy little soul-patch alt-country guy already. Seriously, that guy sucks.