You're not the only one puzzled by this decision. Lionsgate, the studio that produced "Nashville," had signed new showrunners for a fifth season, and was otherwise operating as if it were pretty sure ABC would renew it.

But then May 12 came. ABC canceled a huge number of shows from its schedule to prepare for the announcement of next season's lineup. Variety magazine politely referred to it as a "housecleaning," while AVClub.com said the network "snapped and took an ax to large swathes of its network lineup."

The reality is somewhere in between. Earlier this year, the network announced a new president of its entertainment division, Channing Dungey, and most pundits suggest that the cuts were part of her efforts to make the schedule her own.

This is somewhat supported by Dungey's own explanation for the cuts. In a conference call with reporters, she said simply that, "the future for us didn't lie in those shows."

Discussions of ABC's future are of little comfort to "Nashville" fans, especially since the show ended with a pretty drastic cliffhanger. Lionsgate Television chairman Kevin Beggs said that this was on purpose -- the producers had a happy, conclusive ending already filmed, in case the show did get canceled (apparently they weren't 100 percent confident of renewal), but they opted not to show it. Instead, they went with the ending that was made on the assumption that there would be a season 5.

He said that ending with more story to tell gave the show a better shot at being picked up somewhere else, and cast, crew and fans are all thanking him for his foresight -- it was announced Friday, June 10, that CMT and Hulu are teaming up to bring "Nashville" back for a fifth season. Though it's still unclear exactly when the show will return, 22 new episodes of the series have been ordered and will air on CMT and Hulu.

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