The news arrives as CMT has posted four consecutive year-over-year ratings increases, with 22 percent total day growth and a 31 percent uptick in primetime. Its recently concluded first quarter was its highest primetime ratings period since 2009, ranking the cabler as one of the fastest-growing networks on cable.<\/p>\n
Here’s a look at the documentary slate as well as CMT’s summer and fall lineups:<\/p>\n
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URBAN LEGEND: WHEN A NATION WENT COUNTRY PROMISELAND THEY CALLED US OUTLAWS: COSMIC COWBOYS, HONKY TONK HEROES AND THE RISE OF REDNECK ROCK FREEDOM
\nFrom the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning producers and directors of the ESPN \u201c30 for 30\u201d film \u201cPony Excess,\u201d which debuted as the highest-rated documentary in network history, and the Emmy-nominated \u201cThe Marinovich Project,\u201d comes URBAN LEGEND: WHEN A NATION WENT COUNTRY. The feature-length documentary delves into the phenomenon sparked by the 1980 film \u201cUrban Cowboy\u201d \u2013 when country music found itself in vogue nationally for the first time in history. At the center of the new country movement was Gilley\u2019s, the largest bar in the world located in the oilfields just outside Houston. The documentary tells the boom and bust story of this Texas-sized phenomenon and the honky-tonk that inspired it \u2013 the true story about the moment when a nation finally went country. URBAN LEGEND: WHEN A NATION WENT COUNTRY is produced by Ten100 Productions and directed by John Dorsey and Andrew Stephan.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nExecutive producer Ridley Scott and the producers behind the critically acclaimed and award-winning television events \u201cGettysburg,\u201d \u201cKilling Lincoln\u201d and \u201cKilling Kennedy\u201d present an epic new documentary miniseries celebrating the unsung hero of our country: the American farmer. This groundbreaking four-hour miniseries highlights the captivating true stories of farming families with agricultural roots that trace back for generations. Featuring innovative storytelling and sweeping cinematic visuals, PROMISELAND reveals how these hard-working men and women form the backbone of our nation. PROMISELAND is executive produced by Ridley Scott, David Zucker and Mary Lisio of Scott Free Productions.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nPresented by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, this eight-hour documentary event comes from the award-winning and critically acclaimed\u00a0 filmmaker Eric Geadelmann\u00a0 (\u201cDave\u201d and \u201cThe Dance\u201d), best-selling biographer Joe Nick Patoski (\u201cWillie Nelson \u2013 An Epic Life\u201d) and Emmy, Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning producer Mark Johnson (\u201cBreaking Bad,\u201d \u201cRain Man,\u201d respectively.)\u00a0 What happened in Nashville and in Austin in the late 1960s and early 1970s was nothing less than a tectonic shift in country music. From Tennessee to Texas, musicians were breaking all the rules, pushing aside long-established traditions and doing things their own way.\u00a0THEY CALLED US OUTLAWS tells this story in four feature-length documentary films. It is an in-depth never-before-seen look at the pickers, the players, and the writers who altered the course of country music forever. THEY CALLED US OUTLAWS is \u201cWillie, Waylon & the Boys,\u201d and a few irreverent girls, at the height of their rule-breaking days; featuring over 20 American music icons including Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Bobby Bare, Jerry Jeff Walker, Guy Clark, Billy Joe Shaver, Joe Ely, Ray Benson & Asleep at the Wheel, Rodney Crowell, The Flatlanders, Jessi Colter, Marcia Ball and Emmylou Harris. THEY CALLED US OUTLAWS is produced by Crowfly Pictures Entertainment and Filament Productions and was written, directed and produced by Eric Geadelmann, Kelly Magelsky and Ken Levitan, and executive produced by Mark Johnson, Joe Nick Patoski, Cal Turner, Margaret Turner, Craig Eiland, Randy Paul, Ray Benson & Mickey Raphael.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nFrom Academy Award and Emmy-nominated filmmaker\/executive producer Morgan Spurlock comes FREEDOM: THE DOCUMENTARY. This epic 90-minute film takes an in-depth look at the idea of independence and whether we\u2019re all still truly liberated in today\u2019s America. Equal parts comedic and irreverent, we will traverse the country, meeting the outlaws, the outlandish and the outspoken freedom fighters who are fighting the good fight every step of the way. We\u2019ll explore all sides of the issue, on an unheralded quest to understand the full scope of the freedoms afforded to us across this great nation. FREEDOM: THE DOCUMENTARY will finally ask and answer the ultimate question: \u201cWhat does it mean to be \u2018free\u2019 in America?\u201d FREEDOM: THE DOCUMENTARY is executive produced by Morgan Spurlock, Jeremy Chilnick and Ethan Goldman of Warrior Poets.<\/em><\/p>\n