Charles Esten was close, but he wasn't quite right: Nashville's fifth season will premiere in January of 2017.

Music Row reports that CMT has officially set Jan. 5 as the premiere date for Season 5 of the TV drama; the two-hour premiere will air beginning at 9PM ET. The network picked up the show for a fifth season in early June, following ABC’s cancellation of Nashville in mid-May, and thanks in part to fan demand.

“After a promising start with [the show] Still the King, we now have a clear path in attracting new audiences with our scripted programming,” says Jayson Dinsmore, CMT’s head of development. “Beginning with Nashville in January, each series [Nashville, the new show Million Dollar Quartet and Still the King] will help launch the next, creating an overlay to cycle viewers through our originals year round.”

Nashville will be broadcast and streamed on CMT, and also streamed on Hulu, which currently carries the show’s previous seasons. Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, hired prior to ABC's decision to cancel Nashville, are the TV drama's Season 5 showrunners, while Herskovitz, Zwick, Steve Buchanan and Callie Khouri are its executive producers, with Dinsmore and Morgan Selzer executive-producting for CMT.

Lionsgate, Nashville's production company, has long-term deals with the show's castmembers, so Esten, Sam Palladio, Jonathan Jackson, Clare BowenLennon Stella, Maisy Stella, Chris CarmackHayden Panettiere and Connie Britton will all be back; however, Will Chase and Aubrey Peeples are departing.

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