Reba McEntire Is Returning to TV

Country icon Reba McEntire is making a big comeback on television. She will play a major character in the upcoming third season of ABC’s crime drama Big Sky, created by Big Little Lies writer David E. Kelley. Jensen Ackles and Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who joined the show during Season 2, were also promoted to series regulars. Big Sky features Katheryn Winnick and Kylie Bunbury as Montana private detectives. New episodes will debut this fall on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET.

McEntire will play Sunny Brick, who runs the Brick Family, a backcountry outfitter with links to missing customers, reports Deadline. This will be McEntire’s latest role following a recurring part on CBS’ Young Sheldon and her hilarious cameo in Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar. She also starred in the Christmas TV movie Christmas in Tune. She led her own popular sitcom, Reba, from 2001 to 2007.

This is also McEntire’s first attempt at starring in a TV drama since her 2017 pilot with Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry failed. Back in January 2018, ABC ordered a pilot where McEntire would play a small-town Kentucky sheriff who forms an unlikely partnership with an FBI agent of Middle Eastern descent to solve a grisly crime. After ABC passed on the project, McEntire told Good Housekeeping in 2019 that she would never attempt to star in a drama again.

“I thought, ‘Man, this is going to be great.’ To me, it was one of the greatest things I’d ever gotten to be a part of. I was really proud of it. It was a different type of role for me. It was a one-hour drama pilot,” McEntire said in 2019. Mcentire said she was “aggravated,” “mad,” and “disgruntled” after hearing ABC didn’t pick up the show, which never had a title. “I was like ‘I’ll never do T.V again.’ I did, kind of, question, Was it my performance? Was it, I wasn’t right for the part?’” she asked herself.

David E. Kelley (Big Little Lies) created Big Sky, which is based on C.J. Box’s The Highway books. The show centers on Jenny Hoyt (Winnick) and Cassie Dewell (Bunbury), who solve crimes in Montana. In Season 2, the two reunited to investigate a car crash outside Helena and learn that the case has darker mysteries behind it with links to Hoyt’s past. Ackles appeared in the Season 2 finale as Beau Arlen and will be back for Season 3. Sigler had a recurring role as Tonya during Season 2 and will be seen in more episodes next season.

The main cast for Big Sky also includes Brian Geraghty, Dedee Pfeiffer, John Carroll Lynch, Anja Savcic, Janina Gavankar, Logan Marshall-Green, and Omar Metwally. All episodes are available to stream on Hulu.