NBC Picks Up New Reba McEntire Sitcom

Take three: NBC has picked up Happy’s Place, the third prime-time sitcom starring country music queen and recent Western Heritage Awards lifetime achievement honoree Reba McEntire. The network announced late Tuesday that McEntire — who previously played the lead roles in Reba (2001-2007) Malibu Country (2012-13) — will headline the new series slated for its 2024-2025 lineup.

According to the showbiz trade paper Variety, Happy’s Place focuses on Bobbie (McEntire), who inherits her father’s restaurant and is less than thrilled to discover that she has a new business partner in the half-sister (Belissa Escobedo, pictured above with McEntire) she never knew she had. The cast also includes Melissa Peterman, Pablo Castelblanco, Tokala Black Elk and Rex Linn.

The Hollywood Reporter noted that “McEntire is a proven star and TV draw, an important element as broadcast networks and streamers alike look for broad programming that can not only break through a crowded landscape but also travel globally.”

Indeed, as McEntire told C&I in a 2010 interview, Reba proved to be popular even in overseas markets where McEntire wasn’t previously well known as a country music artist. “We were on in the Pacific Rim, Australia, England, a lot of places in Europe,” she said, adding that she was encouraged to tour in many of those markets for the first time. The series continues to be an audience magnet cable networks and other platforms.

Following the one-season run of Malibu Country, which had her playing a country music artist coping with life after a messy divorce, McEntire has continued to be a prime-time fixture with continuing roles in the series Young Sheldon and Big Sky, and the starring role in the 2022 Lifetime TV-movie Reba McEntire’s The Hammer. She currently serves as one of the celebrity coaches on the highly rated competition series The Voice — which, perhaps not coincidentally, also airs on NBC. That's where she premiered Tuesday evening her latest single: “I Can’t.”