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Charles Esten has been even more pumped for the Season 5 return of “Nashville” than the fan base who rallied forces to ensure that the Music City drama found a new home on CMT. The leading man who lays out the ongoing struggles of his character, Deacon Claybourne, week by week never faded in his feeling that “there were more stories to be told,” and now those stories continue tonight with a two-hour “Nashville” premiere. To raise the stakes even higher, Charles Esten made a resolution for his 2017 that he would release a new song every week. Thus far, the singer, songwriter, and actor is staying right on track, and in honor of the “Nashville” new season, and the connection he already feels for the ladies of “Today,” especially country music aficionado, Hoda Kotb, he offered his latest song a little early for the Jan. 5 morning show.

“Those fans of ours, they’re called Nashies; they’re not just bystanders to this event,” Esten tells The Boot. “They were integral to the pickup of Nashville; CMT itself has said it. When ABC did not pick us up, I was very grateful — still am — for the four years we had there. But what I was really grateful for was that outcry of those fans.

Nashies never give up.

When ABC announced it would not renew its music-centric drama Nashville, fans of the Callie-Khouri-created nighttime soap took matters into their own hands. “I knew that we weren’t done telling these stories or singing these songs,” says Charles “Chip” Esten, who plays Deacon Claybourne, longtime bandmate and brand-new husband of country superstar turned business mogul Rayna Jaymes (Connie Britton). “I have been doing this a long time and understand that nothing’s a given, so I’ve tried to live every single season, every single episode and day here as fully as I can. The love that fans threw our way in that undecided period, that sure helped — you ask any one of our cast members! And then it helped to get us picked up. They were very savvy, very organized and I was so impressed that they were able to take their disappointment and turn it into action.” Action that paid off handsomely.

Though widely known for his role as Deacon Claybourne on CMT’s Nashville, Charles Esten also still gets recognized from his days on the improv comedy show, Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Read More: Charles Esten Gets to Put His Comedy to Use on 'Nashville.' 

Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb Spend the Day on the Nashville Set

 
by claire heinichen