Get ready for a whole lotta Reba McEntire on your TV screens this fall!
The country icon is first taking her coaching talents back to NBC‘s The Voice for a third season this September, alongside fellow Season 26 panelists Snoop Dogg, Michael Bublé, and Gwen Stefani. And then just weeks later, McEntire returns to her sitcom roots with the new series Happy’s Place debuting right there on the same network. So how is she juggling production on two very different shows at the same time?
“Some days [the shoots] are overlapping,” she revealed to TV Insider while promoting the new comedy alongside co-stars Melissa Peterman (McEntire’s former Reba co-star) and Belissa Escobedo in our studio at the TCA Summer 2024 Press Tour. “But it’s so much better than two years ago when I was doing Big Sky in Albuquerque for ABC, and then flying to the East Coast for concerts on the weekend. This is a piece of cake.”
In fact, she doesn’t even have to leave the lot! “You just have to walk across the alley,” noted Peterman, who plays her best friend and bartender Gabby on Happy’s Place. “The two stages are next to each other.”
Peterman and Escobedo, who stars as McEntire’s character’s surprise half-sister, are hoping that proximity might score them an invite to the Voice set. But we had to know if there were any plans to have Bublé, Stefani, and Snoop show up as patrons at the show’s titular tavern — as West Coast Editor Kate Hahn pointed out, bar stools do spin just like those turning coach chairs!
“In a skinny minute, yes!” the songstress enthused at the idea of her fellow coaches guest-starring on Happy‘s Place. “Snoop wants to be on the show. Michael Bublé wants to be on the show. Gwen will just come visit, she didn’t say she wanted to be on the show.”
“She’ll want to,” Peterman added. “When she comes and hangs out, she’ll want to.”
And when the No Doubt singer does agree to appear, Peterman has a pitch for her role. “Maybe Gwen could play my sister! I said that because I want everyone to think that we look a lot alike. She’s just awesome.” Your move, Stefani!
Happy’s Place, Series Premiere, Friday, October 18, 8/7c, NBC
The Voice, Season 26 Premiere, Monday, September 23, 8/7c, NBC
