9-1-1 Nashville should have read the room.
Though the weather impacts of Winter Storm Fern in Music City have mostly worked their way out of the news cycle, there are still thousands of people without power in Nashville. At one point, over 200,000 homes were without power, and the slow process to get all of those residences back online has led to heavy scrutiny of the Nashville Electric Service (NES).
The ice storm caused severe damage to Nashville and the surrounding Middle Tennessee area, and needless to say, it’s taken a toll on residents. The only real silver lining is that Nashvillians have banded together to help one another out during the trying time. Whether it be offering food or shelter to neighbors, or helping to clear downed trees… it’s been an all-hands-on-deck effort to get the city back to normal operations.
While that is a bright spot, one negative story from the winter weather mess is that the ABC show 9-1-1 Nashville allegedly attempted to continue shooting on location during the disaster.
In case you didn’t know, Music City got their own police-solve-various-crimes series when the existing “9-1-1” series passed on other locations like Las Vegas and Hawaii to bring the spinoff to Nashville, Tennessee (mainly because of tax credits the state was able to offer). If you haven’t watched 9-1-1: Nashville, it can best be described as the best worst show you’ll ever see.
The storylines are absurd, the dialogue is corny, and the scenarios that those in trouble find themselves in are completely unrealistic. One outlandish scenario that went viral during the show’s first season was a kid getting carried away by a kite at Nashville’s Centennial Park. Because yeah… stuff like that happens in Nashville all of the time.
While Nashville’s actual first responders were trying to serve their community after the Winter Storm brought close to 0.75 inches of freezing rain and ice to the area (that’s crippling), it appears that Nashville’s fake first responders were still trying to shoot scenes for the ABC series.
This post got a lot of attention last week, but was unable to be verified at the time. Someone shared that 9-1-1 Nashville had shut down a drivable road for filming while many in the area immediately surrounding them didn’t have any power.
Now, because of a post from a Nashville Councilmember, it looks like that above post has some truth to it.
Councilmember Clay Capp, representing District 6, shared on social media that he reached out to the mayor’s office to get 9-1-1 Nashville filming shut down as the city focused on cleanup and power restoration. Capp says that the ABC series was shooting directly in front of homes that didn’t have power, and fortunately, the show ceased filming after the city government stepped in:
“Glad to be able to say that ‘9-1-1 Nashville’ has shut down their film shoot that was happening in East Nashville. Really outrageous for them to be doing that in front of people’s homes without power in this storm. Thanks to the Mayor’s office for helping me with that request.”
Sheesh… that’s a really bad look for a show that’s supposed to be shining a light on Nashville.
And just for further confirmation that all of this did happen, local news outlet WKRN reached out to the Mayor’s office to ask about 9-1-1 Nashville continuing to film during the disaster. An official got back to them with this update:
“Filming in the public right of way has been paused until the end of the disaster declaration.”
That’s good news, but let’s be honest… filming shouldn’t have ever started back up. ABC and 9-1-1 Nashville should have known that it wasn’t right to go on – and potentially even further inconvenience those without power. But I guess it’s not a total surprise that a series that exploits fictional disasters tried to take advantage of an actual one.
