Reba McEntire Working With ‘Reba’ Producers on New NBC Comedy Pilot
The Voice coach Reba McEntire is ready to return to the world of comedy as she reunites with the executive producers of her hit sitcom Reba for a brand new NBC comedy pilot.
According to Deadline, McEntire is working with Kevin Abbott, Michael Hanel, and Mindy Schultheis, all executive producers on the early 2000s sitcom Reba, for a new pilot for NBC in collaboration with Universal Television. Julie Abbott is also on board as an executive producer.
The new show doesn’t yet have a title, but it’s described as a multi-cam project that stars McEntire as a woman who inherits her father’s restaurant and is less than thrilled to find out she has a new business partner in the half-sister she never knew she had.
Reba McEntire and Melissa Peterman on ‘Reba’; Danny Feld / © Fox Television / Courtesy Everett Collection
The pilot, the first pick-up of the 2024 broadcast pilot season, keeps McEntire within the NBC family. She already serves as a coach on The Voice, where she is set to return for a second season on February 26 alongside fellow coaches John Legend, Chance the Rapper, and Dan + Shay.
Reba originally aired from October 5, 2001, to February 18, 2007, with five seasons on The WB and the sixth and final season airing on The CW. The show followed McEntire’s Reba Hart, whose life is turned upside down when she discovers her husband got his dental hygienist, who’s half Reba’s age, pregnant. Then, her 17-year-old daughter also falls pregnant by her high school boyfriend.
The Queen of Country has recently started focusing more on her acting career. She played businesswoman Sunny Barnes in a starring role on the third season of ABC’s Big Sky in 2022. Her real-life boyfriend, Rex Linn, also appeared in the series as Sunny’s husband, Buck. The couple also starred together in the 2023 Lifetime movie Reba McEntire’s The Hammer, which also featured her Reba co-star Melissa Peterman.
Back in 2022, McEntire spoke about a potential Reba revival, telling Deadline there are “So many obstacles.”
“The TV business changes so much that sometimes reboots are hot and then they’re not,” she explained. “Plus, getting everyone scheduled together is also hard. Steve Howie is very busy, and so is Joanna Garcia. Melissa is doing wonderful and here we are making a movie together. I guess timing and schedule will dictate that in the future.”
The Voice, Season 25, February 26, NBC
