The Queen of Country meets with NBC.
Reba McEntire, fresh from her coaching career at NBC The voice, will star in an untitled comedy that has earned a pilot order at the network. The multi-camera vehicle will reunite McEntire with her ex Reba showrunner Kevin Abbott, who will write the script for the project.
The potential series revolves around Reba, who inherits her father’s restaurant and isn’t too thrilled to discover she has a new business partner in the half-sister she never knew she had.
Abbott, in addition to his five years as showrunner on The WB/CW’s Rebais a comedy veteran whose credits also include Last Man Standing, Roseanne, The Golden Girls and working with McEntire on his previous ABC half hour, Malibu Country.
Abbott reunites with his ex Reba Executive producers Michael Hanel and Mindy Schultheis on the NBC comedy McEntire with Julie Abbott also on board in the same capacity. The multi-camera is produced in-house by Universal Television.
McEntire’s comedy is the first NBC pilot of the 2024 season affected by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. As a result of production delays, many networks moved new series that were developed for the 2023-24 season to the 2024-25 cycle. NBC, for example, released only Found and The irrational during the strikes and this month launched the Jon Cryer vehicle Extended family, with drama doctor wolf and false documentary Saint Denis Doctor already booked for the 2024-25 season. That would normally be when most of the pilots commissioned this time of year would normally be picked up, but with so much inventory already locked up, NBC, ABC and CBS are expected to forgo millions of dollars in pilot production amid a cost elderly. cutting landscape.
McEntire is a proven star and television draw, an important element as both broadcast networks and streamers seek broad programming that can not only cut through a crowded landscape but also travel globally.