Melissa Peterman Reflects on Longtime Friendship With Reba McEntire and Celebrates Their New Show (Exclusive)

The actress also shared with ET why she takes a ‘little credit’ for setting Reba up with her beau, Rex Linn.

Melissa Peterman and Reba McEntire are headed back to TV together!

The longtime friends and Reba co-stars are set to reunite on a new sitcom, Happy’s Place, and on Tuesday, ET’s Deidre Behar was the first to break the news to Peterman that their pilot had been picked up to series by Peacock.

“Amazing!” the actress reacted. “I get to work with Reba and our team and I’m so excited!”

While the new series won’t be related to Reba in any way, there are familiar faces both in front of and behind the camera. In addition to Peterman, most of the creative team leads — executive producers Michael Hanel and Mindy Schultheis, as well as writer Kevin Abbott — also worked on McEntire’s eponymous sitcom, which ran on The WB and The CW from 2001-07.

“It’s whole new characters, a whole new scenario and a lot of our same team,” Peterman said of Happy’s Place. “The dynamic is gonna be that dynamic that we have, that natural one.”

“You’re lucky if you get one chance to work with people you love and have it be received so well and still sort of live on,” she reflected, “but I’ve had more than that and I mean, I feel like the luckiest.”

Reba McEntire and Belissa Escobedo in ‘Happy’s Place.’ – NBC

Happy’s Place — on which McEntire also serves as an executive producer — will star The Voice coach as Bobbie, a woman who inherits her father’s restaurant following his death. Things get interesting — and presumably hilarious — when she discovers that her business partner in the endeavor is a half-sister she never knew she had.

Hocus Pocus 2 star Belissa Escobedo stars as Bobbie’s younger half-sister, Isabella, while Peterman plays Gabby, a bartender at Bobbie’s newly inherited restaurant. Happy’s Place is also set to star Pablo Castelblanco, Tokala Black Elk, and McEntire’s real-life beau, Rex Linn — who previously co-starred with Peterman on Young Sheldon.

Of her matchmaking abilities between her co-star and her longtime pal, Peterman admitted, “I like to take a little credit.”

Reba McEntire and Rex Linn at the 2022 CMA Awards. – Taylor Hill/FilmMagic

Mostly, the actress admitted, she’s happy to see McEntire happy in her new relationship — remarking how much their decades-long friendship has meant to her.

“She’s like coming home,” Peterman shared, tearing up. “I think that in this business, we have a lot of ‘Hollywood friends’ — friends that you share just the good stuff with. I think I knew that when we started sharing real-life stuff, that it was forever. I know she’s got my back whether we ever work together again. She is on my side always, and she knows I’m on her’s.”