Nashville Debuts Tonight on ABC

COUNTRY MUSIC TV: Set your TiVos, folks, for tonight’s 10 p.m. premiere of ABC’s musical drama Nashville, the series from Thelma & Louise screenwriter Callie Khouri, starring Friday Night Lights’ Connie Britton as the reigning queen of Country music who is challenged by an up-and-coming pop tart played by Hayden Panettiere. Although it sounds like a Music Cityversion of Smash, the producers are striving for authenticity. J. D. Souther has a key cameo in the opener, while Khouri’s husband, music producer T Bone Burnett, is the show’s executive music producer, composing the score for the pilot with Keefus Green. Big Machine’s Scott Borchetta will distribute the music heard in the series, which includes label artists such as Eli Young Band, Eden’s Edge and Justin Moore. Vector Management’s Ken Levitan is also on board as a technical advisor, telling the L.A. Times he hopes the show spotlights Nashville’s emergence as a “wonderful cosmopolitan city that has a lot of arts a lot of culture… It's not just a Hee Haw mentality here. ” (10/10p)