Jared Padalecki Lands Unexpected New Show Following ‘Walker’ Cancellation

Jared Padalecki is staying booked and busy on the heels of Walker’s cancellation and it’s not in the way one would expect. Deadline reports the actor is set to star in a new CBS medical drama that’s currently in development and he’s teaming up with Walker executive producer and showrunner Anna Fricke for it. The hour-long untitled drama takes place in Texas, where Padalecki is from, and focusing on rural medicine. Frick and Laura Terry are set to executive produce through Fricke’s Pursued by a Bear. The Supernatural alum and Dan Spilo will also executive produce the show, which comes from CBS Studios, where Padalecki has a first-look deal and Fricke an overall deal.

The show will center on a “headstrong, devoted country doctor (Padalecki) who practices his unique style of improvisational medicine alongside his new protégé, a young doctor running from her past, as they operate a mobile clinic and heal the bodies and souls of their underserved community in the medical desert of rural Texas.”

As for what this means for Padalecki’s potential Fire Country spinoff, the new show reportedly does not have an impact on it. Padalecki appeared in a three-episode arc of the firefighter drama late last year with the potential to star in his own spinoff series, referred to as Fire Country: Surfside. The project is still in early stages and has not been greenlighted. If ordered to series, it would follow spinoff Sheriff Country, set to premiere next season.

Padalecki’s Walker, which he starred in and executive produced, ran for four seasons on The CW before ending last June. It was the first series he did after Supernatural, which ended in 2020 after 15 seasons. Walker spawned a short-lived prequel, Walker: Independence, that ran for just 13 episodes. When Walker got canceled, it got a rise out of Padalecki, who blasted The CW’s new management following the merge with Nexstar. At the very least, he still seems to have a good relationship with CBS Studios, which was also behind the two Walker shows and Fire Country.

This new medical drama is still in early development at CBS, and it’s still hard to predict what will happen if both that and the Fire Country spinoff get ordered to series. But since both are from CBS Studios and on CBS, there is more than likely already a plan in place. In any case, Jared Padalecki is remaining plenty busy and more information on both shows should be revealed in the coming months.