If any Nashville fans were still concerned that Connie Britton has plans to leave the TV drama, she put them at ease once and for all during a recent appearance on Ellen. The actress, who plays Rayna Jaymes on the show, says that she's not going anywhere.

“I’m in it. I’m in. I’m in for the duration, and we’re about to start a new season," Britton tells Ellen DeGeneres in the video above. "And it’s an exciting new season because we have new showrunners, so we have new writers, and the stories, I think, are gonna be really -- it’s gonna get us back to what Nashville is about and what the characters are and what the town is and the music is.”

While it's unclear if Britton means she'll stick around for as long as Nashville remains on the air, or just through the end of Season 5, it's good news nonetheless. Over the summer, rumors began swirling that Britton would be leaving the show mid-season; at the 2016 Emmy Awards ceremony, she said, "I don’t know where that stuff came from. It’s kind of crazy the stuff that comes out" -- but didn't explicitly confirm or deny the rumors.

CMT picked up Nashville for a fifth season in early June, following ABC’s cancellation of the TV drama in mid-May, and thanks in part to fan demand.

“I have seen in so many ways in my life the power that a unified voice can have," Britton tells DeGeneres. "The fans were just not gonna have it."

Season 5 of Nashville will premiere in its entirety (the first half aired early, in mid-December) on CMT on Thursday (Jan. 5).

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