TVSquad

There's something to be said for being first out of the gate. Unfortunately for Fox and the folks over at Nashville, there are also things to be said for airing on the Fox Friday night, and for trying to copy a reasonably successful MTV show and move it to one of the big networks. And those latter two, those aren't good things.

Nashville kicked off the new season with its debut on Friday night, in case you didn't know, and our old friend the law of averages suggests that you didn't, because nobody watched. The premiere episode placed fifth in its time slot, failing to best Smackdown (CW) and repeats of America's Funniest Home Videos (ABC), Las Vegas (NBC), and Jericho (CBS). It also managed to drag the network into last place for the night as it dropped almost half of its 5th Grader lead-in.

If you didn't catch it, you didn't really miss anything. The show is just bad. And when it's not bad, it's kind of boring. I don't think the concept at the root of it is necessarily the problem. You could probably get me to watch a documentary style show following musicians trying to make it in Nashville. The problems start springing up when too many soapy hands get involved in the process. My interest wanes rather quickly after that.

So many of the scenes in this show are just so contrived that the illusion of the documentary is gone not long after the opening has finished. That's not bad on it's own, but the soap opera elements responsible for killing the illusion leave much to be desired. The relationships are far too rushed, and the conflicts so predictable that you can almost hear the producer telling the various characters what they think and where they are going. And it all plays out in such an unbelievable way that I would sooner suggest you watch General Hospital Night Shift on SoapNet than watch Nashville.

Halfway through the episode I was asking myself why I was still watching. Surely there are a number of other things that could eat up that next half hour. The shower needs a scrubbing, hitting the rug with a vacuum wouldn't be out of order. Those are the things Nashville is competing with for viewers attention, and apparently losing. According to the ratings, 15% of that already too small audience couldn't resist the call of the Dyson and left at the halfway point.

I'm not sure what it all means for the future of the show. Losing to a night full of reruns, dropping half of your lead-in audience, those are the makings of a quick cancellation. The show does have the fact that it's cheap to make going for it though. It may also benefit from being paired with Next Great American Band. Unfortunately, that premiere is still a long ways off. By the time it arrives, we may already be watching Bones repeats at 9 on Friday.