Ryan Phillippe Joins ‘9-1-1: Nashville’ For Season 2

EXCLUSIVE: 9-1-1: Nashville is yet to wrap its Season 1 run on ABC but the first responder drama is already making a major move for Season 2, bringing in Ryan Phillippe as a new series regular.

Phillippe, who has a multi-year deal, will star as a brilliant, iconoclastic detective who moves to Nashville from New York. A seductive bad boy with a past, he’ll stir up all kinds of juicy drama with our first responders while leading an investigation into a mysterious criminal tormenting Nashville on a biblical scale.

He joins current series regulars Chris O’Donnell, Jessica Capshaw, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, LeAnn Rimes, Michael Provost, Juani Feliz, Hailey Kilgore, and Hunter McVey.

9-1-1: Nashville, which extends the 9-1-1 franchise to Tennessee with a new group of heroic first responders and their families, received an early renewal for the 2026-27 season alongside mothership 9-1-1 in early March.

After a solid ratings start, the spinoff saw its viewership dip to a low in the fall finale and stay low in its winter return before rebounding and hitting two series high marks, one in late January and one in late March. The show currently averages nearly 8 million total viewers over 35 days of multiplatform viewing on ABC, Hulu, Hulu on Disney+ and digital platforms.

There had been some retooling midstream while Season 1 was ongoing, with more changes planned for the offseason. One of them, a high-profile casting, already has been implemented with Phillippe joining the show.

9-1-1: Nashville is produced by 20th Television in association with Ryan Murphy Television. Ryan Murphy, Tim Minear and showrunner Rashad Raisani serve as executive producers, along with Chris O’Donnell, Brad Buecker, Brad Falchuk and Angela Bassett.

After a break, 9-1-1: Nashville returns April 30, with the Season 1 finale slated for the following Thursday, May 7.

Phillippe is coming off a starring role on Prime Video’s YA drama series Motorheads. His series credits include two ABC series, Secrets and Lies and Big Sky, as well as the lead in USA’s Shooter. In features, Phillippe next stars in Paramount’s One Mile and its sequel One Mile More. He is repped by Gersh, MGMT, and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.