‘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 through watching the soapy nighttime drama Nashville, which captivated fans during its 2012-2018 run and led to a major tourism boom in Nashville and interest in country music.

So, when it came time to figure out where the latest edition of Ryan Murphy’s first responder procedural 9-1-1 would take place, Nashville was top of mind for Raisani, who serves as executive producer, co-creator and showrunner for 9-1-1: Nashville.

“Nashville was my first kind of exposure to the city, and I really loved the show,” Raisani says. “And it was just in my brain that I like the city and the music.”

Like the flagship 9-1-1, which is based in Los Angeles and premiered in 2018, and 9-1-1: Lonestar, which aired for five seasons, the latest addition to the franchise centers around a group of firefighters, led by Captain Don Hart (played by Chris O’Donnell), as they deal with life-threatening emergencies each episode.

But unlike its predecessors, 9-1-1: Nashville “really does infuse the city of Nashville” as a character, Raisani says. “I love all three of them, but this one is the most location-specific, from the landmarks that we go to to the musical references and musical identity of the characters. The musical element is undeniable about Nashville, so we knew that we wanted to honor and to explore that in the show.”

The premiere episode, which debuted Oct. 9 on ABC and Hulu, immediately incorporated Nashville’s music scene into the plot, with country superstar Kane Brown performing an outdoor concert when a storm blows down the stage, trapping both fans and crew.

The Nashville setting even allows for characters to be part of the music community: Grammy-winning artist LeAnn Rimes plays Dixie, “our unapologetic villain,” Raisani says, and is a frustrated back-up singer. “She’s got a real deep connection to lots of famous artists, some of which we hope to get on the show as we go forward,” he says.

One of the young firefighters, played by Tony-nominated actress Hailey Kilgore, plays an aspiring musician who the audience will see play in local honky-tonks as she pursues her dream.

The show has already filmed at Ascend Amphitheater and Ryman Auditorium, and Raisani has a wish list that includes iconic Nashville venues including the Bluebird Café and Tootsie’s. “We’re ticking off our list as the stories allow,” he says.

Raisani is working closely with music supervisors Amanda Kreig Thomas and Anna Romanoff, both of whom have worked on 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lonestar on licensing music for 9-1-1: Nashville and to set the musical tone.

The syncs are still being worked on in post-production for the show, but the first episode included Thomas Rhett’s “Feelin’ Country,” and Big & Rich’s “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy).”

“We definitely hit country hard, but we definitely expand past that as well,” Raisani says. “For example, we have an episode coming up where I said, ‘I need two songs, both by famous divas. It could be Whitney, it could be Mariah, it could be Dolly. I need one that’s high octane, rollicking and I need one that’s a beautiful ballad.’ And then they’ll go off and find 20 songs that meet those criteria.”

Previously working on 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lonestar helped Kreig Thomas and Romanoff find their rhythm. “In the early dates of Lone Star, there was this question of ‘We’re set in Texas, how should the music reflect that,’ and very quickly [we realized] the DNA of 9-1-1 is it really has a universal appeal to it,” Kreig Thomas says. “There’s always big hits that are not necessarily country [and] we keep it both localized and universal, so I think that’s something to expect from [9-1-1: Nashville] with the added touch of we have musician characters.”  

“From a music perspective, 9-1-1: Nashville is like the highest form of what we do on these shows,” Romanoff says. “But a lot of the pieces in the building blocks are still there from 9-1-1 and Lone Star. The cadence that the show works at is so crazy in a very fun way. It kind of mirrors the lives of the people on the show, so I think learning how to work in those environments before it was the Music City version was a super helpful foundation.”

Both Kreig Thomas and Romanoff say they don’t have a wish list of artists to feature on the show—though Romanoff says she loves Sierra Ferrell “and I’m trying to get her into everything.”  Kreig Thomas, who immersed herself in country music when she was music supervisor for the 2022 drama Monarch, which was about a fictional country music dynasty, adds, “there’s just really interesting things coming out of country music, like Dasha and Jessie Murph. Madeline Edwards is another artist that’s doing really cool things, but it all goes back to story and vibe and what’s going to fit in the way we’re telling this world. It’s still a 9-1-1 so the priority will always be the emergencies.”

Their guide to make sure their musical choices are authentic is music producer/composer Tim Lauer, who worked on Nashville and whose father was the director of photography for Robert Altman’s classic 1975 film, Nashville. “[Tim] has been this incredible resource who just knows the city and the history and the landscape and the architect and the people,” Raisani says. “He knows all the people to talk to, to get each crazy location, or to help us get into the rodeo, or get into the Ascend.”  

Similarly, Kreig Thomas says Lauer has been critical part of their success as they work with publishers, labels and songwriters. “Tim has been such a great liaison to that Nashville musician community that’s been really invaluable,” she says. “He’s definitely been our musical sherpa.”

Following Brown’s appearance in the premiere, Raisani hopes to have other country artists appear in story lines, but, he adds, scheduling can be difficult. “We’ve started shooting in the summer, which is [country artists’] touring season, so it’s a headache to get these [big names]. The people you want are awesome, but their schedules are really tricky.”

Given his love of the show Nashville, Raisani isn’t ruling out having some fictional characters from that show pop up on 9-1-1: Nashville. “I think that would be amazing,” he says. “I don’t know about the rights and ownership, but what if I wanted [Nashville leads] Luke Wheeler or Rayna James or somebody to run into one of [our characters],” he says, although there could be issues because James died on the show and Connie Britton, who played James, also appeared as a dispatcher on the first season of  9-1-1. “So maybe that would be a little bit complicated for her,” Raisani says, “but I think I love the possibility of it.”