The Real Reason Reba McEntire’s Sitcom Was Canceled

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Country music legend Reba McEntire has been through a lot in 2021. For a while, she believed she had a terrible breakthrough case of COVID despite vaccination, and then it turned out she was dealing with another medical issue. Point is, Reba has been through the wringer. But her career has been full of ups and downs as well. But for a while, it looked like Reba was unbeatable. Of course, he music career has always been solid — the country music industry has a thing for taking care of their own — but her acting career was on fire as well. This is because, as some fans remember, she had a sitcom on the now-defunct WB for a number of years.

Reba was quite a big hit for a while, carving out an audience for itself and launching the career of future Shameless actor, the immensely talented and wealthy Steve Howey. The show found an audience with middle America and parts of the coast alike as it didn’t pander to one audience or the other despite some of the show’s religious overtones or country-drawl. This was a big accomplishment since the show took place in Texas, unlike so many other network sitcoms. While the show held on to some decent ratings into its sixth season, it was ultimately canceled and fans are still wondering what happened…

The Real Reason Reba Was Canceled

Reba was a very personal show for the country singer. So much of her personal life was poured into the relationship dynamics between her and her kids on the show. So it makes sense that Reba holds her sitcom close to her heart. It’s also clear that she made some pretty strong friendships from her time working on the series, namely Melissa Peterman who played her on-screen enemy, Barbara Jean. The two even have a podcast together called “Living And Learning” and are trying their best to get a Reba reboot going.

Not unlike other stars, Reba was gifted a series of her own due to her star power. Fortunately for her, it ran for a whopping six years on The WB. At its height, it earned records for the Friday night time slot on The WB making it a massive earner for the network. At its absolute height, it brought in 5 million viewers per episode which were impressive then and even more impressive by today’s standards. But no success could save a show from the desire of its network.

According to Got This Now, the real reason that Reba was canceled had to do with the fact that The WB and UPN merged and became The CW. Nowadays, The CW is known for having a certain type of program. We’re talking about unrealistically good-looking twenty-year-olds playing teenagers and unrealistically good-looking Hollywood types playing brutish superheroes from the DC universe. But in its earliest years, it didn’t know what it was.

After taking over The WB, The CW decided to keep Reba for another season. And because of its previous success, the show continued having extremely high ratings during its fifth year on the air. It was even rivaling the viewership of the hour-long drama 7th Heaven, which was the show Reba was the ‘lead-in’ to. Even the re-runs of Reba were doing better than some of The CW’s new shows like Hidden Palms and Everybody Hates Chris.

Clearly, The CW wanted to rebrand itself and create a new slate of shows that were entirely theirs and not the previous entity’s.

The CW actually originally canceled Reba as soon as it was formed. They didn’t want it. But because of some inner drama at the network, as well as fansites demanding the show return, the series was picked up for another season. This was pretty impressive since The CW originally announced that Reba would be canceled part-way through its season (when the merger occurred) and not be allowed to complete its series order

But even with the success of the resurrected season on The CW, the network just wanted to rebrand. So, Reba was axed officially and given a proper send-off despite its ability to continuously earn money for the network. The CW got their way and was able to slowly build the type of network that we know today. And that doesn’t include a wholesome sitcom with a country legend in the lead.

The Staying Power Of Reba

While The CW clearly didn’t appreciate what Reba could do for them, other networks clearly have. When the show went into syndication in 20212, a couple of years after its cancelation, it began picking up in popularity. Networks like CMT and ABC Family were allowed to air the re-runs and they raked in a decent rating. Following this, the show went over to TV Land and UPTV. Recently, it’s been shown on The Hallmark Channel which has built it an even bigger fanbase that are the ones demanding a reboot.

As for if a reboot will actually happen or not is in the hands of the owners of Reba (including The CW). So, unless they decide to full-on sell their rights, it may not happen. Still, it seems as though Reba is doing everything she can to do what her fans want and reboot the Hart family.