Q&A with Nashville TV Executive Producers Dee Johnson and Callie Khouri #ABCTVEvent

I have been invited as media to attend these events. Expenses have been paid in exchange for my coverage. All opinions are my own.

During my trip to Los Angeles last week our blogger group had the opportunity to sit down for a Q&A with Nashville TV Series Executive Producers Dee Johnson and Callie Khouri. 

While I had not had the opportunity to catch the full season, we did see episodes “All or Nothing with Me” and “On the Other Hand” (the season finale). Yes, we saw the season finale before it was released!! However, we have been sworn to secrecy so sorry I can’t spill any details. 🙂 I can tell you the season finale is REALLY good and our group was doing a mix of gasping and cheering during the episode.

Here’s a quick synopsis of the TV series Nashville:

ABC’s “Nashville” stars Chris Carmack as Will Lexington, Clare Bowen as Scarlett O’Connor, Jonathan Jackson as Avery Barkley, Sam Palladio as Gunnar Scott, Maisy Stella as Daphne Conrad, Eric Close as Teddy Conrad, Lennon Stella as Maddie Conrad, Connie Britton as Rayna Jaymes, Charles Esten as Deacon Claybourne and Hayden Panettiere as Juliette Barnes.

Nashville is an American musical drama television series. Rayna Jaymes, a legendary country music superstar who begins to fade in stardom gets a recommendation from her recording label to open for Juliette Barnes. Rayna, who dislikes Juliette’s style of music, rejects a joint tour. The two women come into conflict on more than one occasion during the TV series. With many twists and turns between the cast, the show has become a hit on ABC and has been picked up for another season.

Q&A with Nashville Executive Producers Dee Johnson and Callie Khouri:

Blogger Q: During season 2 we noticed the focus on more of the cast versus a lot of story lines. Are we going to see more of that in the next season?

CK: We wanted to use this season to integrate the ensemble where their worlds crossed over a bit and focus on our central cast. I think we plan to stick with, I don’t want to say couples, per say, but more on our core group and original cast.

Blogger Q: Did you guys have any apprehension about bringing a show like this that’s so centered around Country music? Were you wondering how that would be taken by such a large audience?

DJ: Well, so much of the music in our show is not what you would consider Country music. The reason I wanted to do the show is because there’s all this great music “stuck” in Nashville that you never get to hear. It’s not going to make it to Country radio. The kind of stuff we do, most of them are those great heartfelt songs that you wouldn’t necessarily find on Country radio. I love that our show is a platform to get that music out there. I don’t know exactly what you would call it, but it’s not what people think of straight Country.

Blogger Q: When you were casting did you have ideas for who you wanted to play those characters?

DJ: Well, it was pretty intensive. I knew I wanted Connie Britton and I honestly wanted her so much that I cast her without ever hearing her sing. In terms of Sam, and Clare – all of them, they had to sing at their audition. We had a really hard time. I saw so many people for that role (Scarlett) and, you know it’s really specific, and I was really getting disheartened. 

CK: It’s a lot that we’re asking for – people that can sing, and sing really, really well, and that can act.

DJ: So yes it was hard to find people. 

And then they brought in a secret guest! Eric Close, who plays Teddy on the Nashville series. Eric starred for almost a decade on CBS’ “Without a Trace” and “Now and Again.” Close was also in the Golden Globe-nominated miniseries “Taken,” executive-produced by Steven Spielberg.

 
After we were done swooning over him (LOL) we had a chance to ask him a few questions about the show.

Eric starts with asking us what we thought of the season finale, in which we replied “oh my god” and “awesome”! He follows up with, “yea there’s a lot of twists and turns.” He also mentioned that, “Chip and I have been friends for many years. So when we found out we were going to be working together – it makes the conflict on camera more fun for us because we feel safe and can really go for it.”

He touched on having two daughters of his own and how playing this character who’s loosing his daughters emotionally is tough. He says the show is fun and challenging, and that he really enjoys it.

We had an amazing time meeting with the Executive Producers and Eric Close and really appreciate them taking time out of their day to chat with us about the series.

The season finale of the Nashville TV show airs Wednesday (5/14) at 10pm EST on the ABC Network.

Live tweet during the season finale with hashtag #NashvilleFinale and follow Nashville on twitter.

*Picture credits for the first three images go to: ABC/Bob D’Amico and ABC/Rick Rowell