Reba McEntire Teases Romance With Rex Linn In New 'Happy's Place' Trailer

Reba McEntire and her Happy’s Place co-stars shared a new sneak peek of the upcoming second season of the sitcom. The latest look offers the first glimpse of McEntire’s onscreen romance with her real-life fiancé, Rex Linn.

The new trailer shows McEntire and her former Reba cast mate, Melissa Peterman (who play Bobby and Gabby, respectively), talking about Linn’s character, Emmett. Bobbie acknowledges at the end of the clip that she thinks Emmett is “cute,” but says it’s a man’s responsibility to ask a woman on a date. Gabby counters, “that hasn’t been true in 30 years.” Bobbie exclaims, “I haven’t dated in 30 years!”

On Happy’s Place, Bobbie “inherits a restaurant from her late father, then learns she must share ownership with a newly discovered half-sister, creating awkward tension between the two,” the show’s description reads. The cast also includes Belissa Escobedo, Pablo Castelblanco and Tokala Black Elk. The series was created by Julie Abbott and Kevin Abbott. McEntire and Linn hinted at a budding relationship between their characters over the summer. Linn said at that time that “there’s rumors that maybe Emmett and Bobbie get together. I mean, we don’t know that for a fact. But it would be great for Bobbie, I mean, if she was with Emmett. I mean, that’s how I look at it. You gotta stay tuned.”

McEntire caught up with iHeartCountry to talk about her work in sitcoms earlier this year. She said at that time that the No. 1 secret to a successful comedy is “the writing. If it’s not on the page, it’s not on the stage.” She said her showrunner and head writer tells stories in “a great voice of comedy and heart. …That’s what I love so much about the Andy Griffith Show, (for example), how he raised Opie – I used that raising my son – but it is very important to have heart in there. You gotta laugh, but you gotta cry. You’ve got to hit all of those emotions.

“It connects people to the story, the experience, whatever’s happened, hopefully you learn something from it (and) you can use it in your own life,” McEntire added later. “Kevin Abbott, our showrunner, is so thoughtful that he will come in after we’ve done three takes of one scene, and he’ll give us new lines for the audience,” McEntire said of the mutual kinship between the cast and the viewers. “And some of those might take and is the one they take for the episode you see on television. But if not, it’s something just to entertain the audience. He’s there for everybody. And it entertains us, too.”

Last month, McEntire and Linn confirmed their engagement on the red carpet at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards, which took place at The Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, California. McEntire, 70, and Linn, 68, met on the set of Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw in 1991. They reconnected while working on Young Sheldon in early 2020, and McEntire previously said on the Jennifer Hudson Show that her first date with Linn inspired lasting nicknames. The couple shared tater tots at a wine bar after dinner, and they became “tater tot” (McEntire) and “sugar tot” (Linn). McEntire said they’ve “been together ever since.”

McEntire said in an interview on Late Night with Seth Meyers  earlier this year that on Happy’s Place, Linn is “probably the sane one in the group. On the Reba show, I was the voice of reason, and now he is. So, I get to be in the whirlwind of chaotic stuff. I love it. I love it [giving herself permission to be ‘the crazy one’ this time]. …He’s a good guy. I like him a lot.”

Happy’s Place will return to NBC and Peacock on November 7. Watch the latest trailer below.