Reba McEntire teases reunion with former “Reba” guest star as her new “Happy’s Place” love interest
Reba McEntire teases reunion with former “Reba” guest star as her new “Happy’s Place” love interest
Gerrad HallMon, October 5, 2026 at 1:00 PM UTC
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Rex Linn and Reba McEntire in the ‘Happy’s Place’ season 3 premiereCredit: Casey Durkin/NBCKey Points -
‘Happy’s Place’ star Reba McEntire teases her new season 3 love interest, played by a ‘Desperate Housewives’ alum.
The actress explains where things stand emotionally between Bobbie and Emmett (Rex Linn).
Jane Lynch also returns as the narcissistic mom of Melissa Peterman’s Gabby.
Will Bobbie find her happy place on season 3 of Happy’s Place?
At the end of season 2 of the NBC sitcom, Reba McEntire’s Bobbie hoped to reconnect with Emmett (Rex Linn) after he broke up with the health inspector, Monica (Cheri Oteri), whom he briefly dated after Bobbie broke up with him for not revealing that he knew about her dad’s secret daughter, Isabelle (Belissa Escobedo). But before Bobbie could apologize to Emmett and see if he’d like to give it another go, he told her he’s done with dating and experiencing heartbreak, which she respected and is giving him time.
But still...
“It’s still raw. Very raw,” McEntire tells Entertainment Weekly about Bobbie and Emmett’s emotions following their season 2 breakup. “They don’t know how to deal with it.”
So for now, they won’t. In fact, Bobbie will now become the object of someone else’s affection, as seen in EW’s exclusive debut of the Happy’s Place season 3 trailer (below). After previously appearing on two episodes of McEntire’s eponymous sitcom in 2004 and 2005 — first as Brock (Christopher Rich) and Barbara Jean’s (Melissa Peterman) marriage counselor, and then briefly dating Reba before she discovers he’s still married — Desperate Housewives alum James Denton reunites with McEntire to play JB, her new love interest.
“[Emmett] had Monica last season, now I’m getting JB. And it’s a little tit-for-tat,” she explains about the situation. “But I ask him and he says, ‘Yeah, go for it.’ So everything’s going fine. But it’s always that tension of, What’s he gonna think, and what should I do? But it’s moving forward anyway.”
Will it result in jealousy on Emmett’s part?
“I think the writers are saving that just a little bit,” McEntire says, “to kinda keep the pot boiling on the back burner until JB and Emmett get to meet.”
McEntire says she sees how invested Happy’s Place fans have become in Bobbie and Emmett’s dating life — and she wonders if they will be a modern will they/won’t they relationship à la Friends’ Ross and Rachel or Cheers’ Sam and Diane.
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“If we get together, then nobody has anything to root for,” she acknowledges, adding that fans keep urging them, “‘Come on, get back together! Get back together.’ That’s what everybody asks me: When is Bobby and Emmett getting back together? And that’s what we want. We want people to be asking questions. And that’s what’s so great about any kind of TV show is when people are talking about it the next morning over coffee.”
Reba McEntire and James Denton on ‘Happy’s Place’ season 3Credit: Casey Durkin/NBC
Reba McEntire on the season 3 premiere of ‘Happy’s Place’Credit: Casey Durkin/NBC
The writers, she knows, “love” it. “They want everybody to be talking about it and pulling for Bobbie. Emmett had a date with Monica; Bobbie needs to go out and find somebody,” she says. “And then everybody said, ‘No, they need to get back together.’ So it’s good they’re talking about us.”
Viewers will have more to talk about this season, with the return of Jane Lynch, who plays the mom of Melissa Peterman’s Gabby.
“Jane Lynch — oh my gosh, she’s hysterical. And a narcissistic mother. I think she gets the prize for that,” McEntire says, laughing. “She and Melissa work so well together. They [go] right at each other.... All of Gabby’s insecurities are still full-fledged.”
As for Bobbie’s sister Isabelle — who decided to open a speakeasy in the back of Happy’s Place at the end of season 2, leading to some tension between the sisters — she still lives with Bobbie.
Jane Lynch and Melissa Peterman on ‘Happy’s Place’ season 3Credit: Casey Durkin/NBC
Reba McEntire and Belissa Escobedo on ‘Happy’s Place’ season 3Credit: Casey Durkin/NBC
Tokala Black Elk, Pablo Castelblanco, Rex Linn, Melissa Peterman, Belissa Escobedo, and Reba McEntire on ‘Happy’s Place’ season 3Credit: Casey Durkin/NBC
“Isabella is doing a lot of different things this time,” McEntire says. “She is growing. She’s advancing in the tavern business. And I think that’s about all I can say right now.”
As for the other two men in her life, Steve (Pablo Castelblanco) is “gonna learn a lot of things about himself” (and, apparently, make friends with a duck, as seen in the gallery of EW’s first look photos above), and Tokada (Tokala Black Elk)— a character that McEntire named — remains “the heart of Happy’s Place. Everybody looks to him as a grounded answer to a problem, and he’s always there for us.”
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Happy’s Place season 3 premieres Friday, Oct. 23, at 8 p.m. on NBC.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
