'Nashville' Season 6 Cast News: Rachel Bilson Not Returning to Reprise Role
Rachel Bilson will not be returning for the upcoming sixth season of "Nashville."
According to TVLine, Bilson will not be reprising her role as Alyssa, Highway 65's chief strategy officer. The publication confirmed that Bilson had only signed on for one season, and there were no plans for her character to extend beyond that.
However, as executive producer Marshall Herskovitz previously revealed, there could be room for Bilson to return. While he admitted that Alyssa's story arc is over, he also said that they "would love for her to come back."
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With Bilson gone, it looks like Deacon (Charles Esten) will be without another potential love interest. It can be recalled that Alyssa kissed Deacon in the season 5 finale. However, fans should not feel sorry for Deacon, who lost Rayna (Connie Britton) to a car crash in the previous season. He has some real chemistry with Jessie (Kaitlin Doubleday), and it looks like that will be explored further in the new season.
This much was teased in the new promo video released by CMT. As previously reported, the clip features most of the show's main characters walking the red carpet. It shows two sides of some of the characters, and both begins and ends with Juliette (Hayden Panettiere).
Fans are mostly excited to see Juliette's diva side back in action. Season 5 saw her stealing Maddie's (Lennon Stella) song and lying about it. After an award nomination and some backlash, Juliette ultimately owned up to her wrongdoings and apologized. She even managed to help save Highway 65. However, that does not mean Juliette will be a Good Samaritan all the way now.
In fact, her self-important side was recently teased by CMT with a clip showing all of her diva moments. A separate promo teased Juliette snapping at her fans, telling them she does not need them.
"Nashville" season 6 will premiere on Thursday, Jan. 4, on CMT.
