Nashville Star is an American reality television singing competition program that aired for six seasons, from 2003 to 2008. Its first five seasons aired on USA Network, while the last season aired on NBC. Its five seasons on USA made it the longest-running competition series on cable television at the time. In Canada, the show aired on CMT through season 5, but moved to E! beginning with season 6. CMT in the United States reaired each episode in season 6.

It was similar to American Idol, in that performers had to sing to impress both celebrity judges and the public via call-in and/or internet votes. Unlike American Idol, however, the performers were limited to country music. This restriction was relaxed for Season 6, allowing for the finalists to choose from many genres of music, but the songs were arranged to maintain a country sound.

The show is credited with jump-starting the careers of singers Buddy Jewell, Miranda Lambert, Chris Young, and Kacey Musgraves among others. A Nashville Star-themed gifts and souvenirs shop featuring local items and city souvenirs opened in July 2008 at Nashville International Airport, one month before the show's final episode, and closed after over a decade.

In a format nearly identical to the final round of American Idol, finalists performed one song per week individually and face criticism and/or praise from a panel of three judges. At the end of the show, voting opened to the viewing public, who cast votes by calling a toll-free telephone number or logging on to the show's official website (texting was added as a voting option in 2008). The performer with the fewest votes was eliminated.

However, because Nashville Star aired only once per week, eliminations were not announced until the following week. The finalists who have not been eliminated are called in random order to the stage one by one to perform until there are only two remaining. At that point, one was called to perform and the other was eliminated for receiving the fewest votes from the previous week. The finalists did not know the order in which they would perform and had less than one minute to prepare once their names were called. No votes are tallied on the season finale.

Much like American Idol, the judges were present to offer criticism to the finalists in an attempt to sway the voting public. Unlike Idol, however, Nashville Star's judges did not participate in the preliminary auditions (leaving that task to the show's producers), but they did act as mentors to the finalists (beginning with the 2008 season). The audition process was not seen on-air on USA Network versions, except for the first season (2003 season), but portions of it was seen in a montage during the premiere of the NBC version. Beginning with the 2008 move to NBC, the judges did assist producers in narrowing the field from 50 to 12. Each season (except for 2005), the judges eliminated finalists based on consensus on the premiere episode without sending the vote to the public (the process continued for a few more episodes during the first two seasons).

Whereas American Idol generally elevated people off the street to stardom, Nashville Star finalists were usually already somehow involved in the country music industry, but may not have attained a record deal on a major label. Past finalists have included studio musicians, background singers, and independent artists. Finalists were usually songwriters, in addition to being singers. In each season, one episode was dedicated to songs written by the finalists. Nashville Star did not have the same age limits as American Idol, and performers in their 30s and 40s were finalists, although most were in their 20s.

Nashville Star always featured a live band, led by John Bohlinger.