Eight years after they shared the screen together on Reba, Reba McEntire and Melissa Peterman are rejoining forces on the small screen for ABC Family’s Baby Daddy!
McEntire and Peterman have remained close friends since Reba’s six-year run ended in 2007 — and Peterman had been inviting the country superstar to be a guest on her latest project for years. Finally, their schedules matched up.
“That week [we filmed together again] was one of those things where you’re just really proud to have the person who taught you everything you know about TV come and watch you with this new TV family,” Peterman tells Us Weekly. “As far as her and I and the chemistry that we had, that felt like no time had passed. We just have that thing and we start to say lines, and rehearsing and goofing off, that came back like riding a bike.”
As for her attitude on set, McEntire arrived humbled and ready to have fun, according to Peterman: “You can’t be intimated by someone who doesn’t intimidate people. She walks in and she’s there to play.” Even after repeated offers to skip table reads or rehearsal, McEntire insisted on being present. “She would never not be there every day of the week if she said yes. That’s who she is!” Peterman says of her friend.
The “Turn On The Radio” singer certainly brought some extra star power to the show, but not everyone was impressed. “The babies [played by Kayleigh and Sura Harris] were the way coolest,” Peterman dishes. “They didn’t care that Reba McEntire was on the set. If they needed to eat or nap, they stop production.”
That didn’t stop McEntire from trying to win them over. “She was really great with the babies! She’s good with kids,” Peterman gushes of the Grammy winner, grandmother to Kelly Clarkson’s daughter River Rose. (Clarkson’s husband, Brandon Blackstock, is McEntire’s stepson.) “It was really cute to see her with both of them, but they didn’t really care.”
Catch McEntire and Peterman’s long-awaited reunion on Baby Daddy on Wednesday, Aug. 5, at 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC Family!