Humor and romance are at the heart of Happy’s Place — and as season 3 arrives on NBC on Oct. 23, 2026, that romance extends well beyond the script. The sitcom stars Reba McEntire as Bobbie, a woman who inherits her late father’s Tennessee bar — and her real-life fiancé, Rex Linn, as Emmett, the bar’s cook. Art and life are sharing the same booth.
The premise remains deliciously simple: Bobbie inherits Happy’s Place from her late father, only to learn she has a long-lost half-sister, Isabella (Belissa Escobedo), who is also part owner of the tavern. The pair take on the challenge of running the joint together. The cast is rounded out by McEntire’s former Reba costar Melissa Peterman, Linn, Pablo Castelblanco and Tokala Black Elk.
(Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0))Reba McEntire and Rex Linn
On screen, McEntire and Linn play Bobbie and Emmett — and season 2 was a roller coaster for the pair, ending with both single by the finale. Off screen, the story is far sweeter: the two have been dating since 2020, and Linn sweetly revealed in October 2024 that sometimes he will “sneak by for a quick kiss” with McEntire while filming.
They first met in 1991 on the set of a Kenny Rogers movie but did not start dating until 2020. That November, they made their red carpet debut at the CMA Awards. The actors got engaged in December 2024 and announced the news in September 2025 at the Emmy Awards, with McEntire later sharing that the proposal happened on Christmas Eve at Leiper’s Fork in Tennessee.
McEntire has called the relationship a game-changer, saying she was “happier now than I’ve ever been in my life.” She added: “I’ve never been loved by a man like Rex Linn. Rex is a very tender-hearted man, and I just love him with all my heart.” On working together, she reflected: “Getting to work with Rex, drive to work with Rex and do the show, the rehearsals, drive home, talk about it, rehearse together — that’s what’s really special for me. I’ve not had that before.”
(Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0))Melissa Peterman and John Brady
Reuniting on-screen with McEntire after their six-season stint on Reba, Peterman portrays Gabby, a bartender at Happy’s Place. In real life, she has been married to her husband, actor John Brady, since June 1999. The couple met in Minnesota, where they still own a home, and wed in Peterman’s hometown of Minneapolis. They share one child, son Riley, born in 2005 — and Peterman celebrated their “silver medal” marriage in 2024, marking 25 years.
Peterman, for one, is a fan of the Reba-Rex romance. She told PEOPLE the couple is “adorably cute,” adding: “We’re taking a five-minute break, or we’re having breakfast or lunch, and you look over … and they’re in a booth at the bar.”
Belissa Escobedo and Pablo Castelblanco
Escobedo portrays Isabella, Bobbie’s paternal half-sister, and she has not shared much about her relationship status in real life. She has, however, been open about her sexuality, telling Hola! in May 2020 that she came out as pansexual to her family when she was a teenager. Of working with McEntire, she told Teen Vogue in October 2024: “She’s such a sweetheart. Immediately when I first met her, when we did our chemistry read, she was just so warm and welcoming.”
Castelblanco returns as Steve, the bar’s accountant who struggles with OCD and shares a tight-knit bond with Gabby. The actor is openly gay and has not shared much about his personal life publicly. But he has said nothing but sweet things about McEntire, telling PEOPLE in February 2026 that his costar was “the best person on Earth” — recalling how the cast surprised him with presents when the season 3 renewal landed on his birthday. “It starts from the top,” he said. “It starts from Reba being the kindest person there is.”
(Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0))Season 3: What to Expect
The new season arrives with 18 episodes, airing Fridays on NBC, and picks up after a season 2 finale that left Bobbie and Emmett both single. According to the network, the third installment will see the pair navigating the friend zone — “it’s still raw,” McEntire has said of their dynamic. A guest star, James Denton, arrives as JB, a handsome bar patron who pursues Bobbie, setting up what McEntire calls “a little tit-for-tat” after Emmett’s own season 2 romance with health inspector Monica.
Returning favorites include Jane Lynch as the “hysterical” Val and Justina Machado as Maritza. But the real draw, as ever, is the ensemble’s easy chemistry — the kind that comes from a cast that genuinely likes each other. When the renewal news broke on Castelblanco’s birthday, the cast threw him a surprise celebration with presents he never asked for. “That’s the kind of family we’ve become,” he said. Audiences will feel it in every episode.