‘9-1-1: Nashville’ Showrunner on Making Music City a Leading Character: ‘We Hit Country Hard, But We Expand Past That’

Like millions of viewers, Rashad Raisani grew enchanted with Music City done watching the soapy nighttime play Nashville, which captivated fans during its 2012-2018 tally and led to a large tourism roar successful Nashville and involvement successful state music.

So, erstwhile it came clip to fig retired wherever the latest variation of Ryan Murphy’s archetypal responder procedural 9-1-1 would instrumentality place, Nashville was apical of caput for Raisani, who serves arsenic enforcement producer, co-creator and showrunner for 9-1-1: Nashville.

“Nashville was my archetypal benignant of vulnerability to the city, and I truly loved the show,” Raisani says. “And it was conscionable successful my encephalon that I similar the metropolis and the music.”

Like the flagship 9-1-1, which is based successful Los Angeles and premiered successful 2018, and 9-1-1: Lonestar, which aired for 5 seasons, the latest summation to the franchise centers astir a radical of firefighters, led by Captain Don Hart (played by Chris O’Donnell), arsenic they woody with life-threatening emergencies each episode.

But dissimilar its predecessors, 9-1-1: Nashville “really does infuse the metropolis of Nashville” arsenic a character, Raisani says. “I emotion each 3 of them, but this 1 is the astir location-specific, from the landmarks that we spell to to the philharmonic references and philharmonic individuality of the characters. The philharmonic constituent is undeniable astir Nashville, truthful we knew that we wanted to grant and to research that successful the show.”

The premiere episode, which debuted Oct. 9 connected ABC and Hulu, instantly incorporated Nashville’s euphony country into the plot, with state superstar Kane Brown performing an outdoor performance erstwhile a tempest blows down the stage, trapping some fans and crew.

The Nashville mounting adjacent allows for characters to beryllium portion of the euphony community: Grammy-winning creator LeAnn Rimes plays Dixie, “our unapologetic villain,” Raisani says, and is simply a frustrated back-up singer. “She’s got a existent heavy transportation to tons of celebrated artists, immoderate of which we anticipation to get connected the amusement arsenic we spell forward,” helium says.

One of the young firefighters, played by Tony-nominated histrion Hailey Kilgore, plays an aspiring instrumentalist who the assemblage volition spot play successful section honky-tonks arsenic she pursues her dream.

The amusement has already filmed astatine Ascend Amphitheater and Ryman Auditorium, and Raisani has a privation database that includes iconic Nashville venues including the Bluebird Café and Tootsie’s. “We’re ticking disconnected our database arsenic the stories allow,” helium says.

Raisani is moving intimately with euphony supervisors Amanda Kreig Thomas and Anna Romanoff, some of whom person worked connected 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lonestar connected licensing euphony for 9-1-1: Nashville and to acceptable the philharmonic tone.

The syncs are inactive being worked connected successful post-production for the show, but the archetypal occurrence included Thomas Rhett’s “Feelin’ Country,” and Big & Rich’s “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy).”

“We decidedly deed state hard, but we decidedly grow past that arsenic well,” Raisani says. “For example, we person an occurrence coming up wherever I said, ‘I request 2 songs, some by celebrated divas. It could beryllium Whitney, it could beryllium Mariah, it could beryllium Dolly. I request 1 that’s precocious octane, rollicking and I request 1 that’s a beauteous ballad.’ And past they’ll spell disconnected and find 20 songs that conscionable those criteria.”

Previously moving connected 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lonestar helped Kreig Thomas and Romanoff find their rhythm. “In the aboriginal dates of Lone Star, determination was this question of ‘We’re acceptable successful Texas, however should the euphony bespeak that,’ and precise rapidly [we realized] the DNA of 9-1-1 is it truly has a cosmopolitan entreaty to it,” K...