Happy’s Place is officially setting up yet another Reba reunion.
NBC confirmed on Tuesday, September 30, that JoAnna Garcia Swisher is set to play a local Knoxville influencer named Kenzie in an upcoming episode. Her character who “has been hired to represent Happy’s Place for their upcoming social media marketing campaign and all of it is much to Bobbie’s chagrin,” according to the official character description.
Swisher is the third Reba alum to make an appearance on Reba McEntire and Melissa Peterman‘s hit sitcom, which was released more than 17 years after their hit series Reba ended its six-year run on The WB. Reba also starred Christopher Rich and Steve Howey — who have made cameos already — alongside Scarlett Pomers and Mitch Holleman, both of whom have yet to appear on the NBC sitcom.
The actress previously hinted exclusively to Us Weekly that she would be joining Happy’s Place in the near future.
“I cannot wait to go shake it up over there with them,” she told Us in July. “Steve Howey has already done it, and Chris Rich has done it.”
Swisher continued: This is my family. We are all so very close, but getting the opportunity to slide back into a sitcom stage with all of them would be so exciting. I would not be surprised if that was in the very near future.”
Steve Howey as Danny, Reba McEntire as Bobbie and Melissa Peterman as Gabby on ‘Happy’s Place’ Casey Durkin/NBC
McEntire, 70, for her part, recently told Us that Swisher is “definitely” next after playing her onscreen daughter in Reba.
“JoAnna is so busy. She’s producing, she’s got three movies and she’s [working on] Sweet Magnolias. So she is a very busy lady but she said she’d definitely be there,” McEntire shared in May. “Melissa Peterman, JoAnna and Steve Howey have been very busy. To get to bring Steve in already for our Christmas episode and to bring Chris [Rich] back in — that was the most special.”
According to Happy’s Place creator Kevin Abbott, there was also a plan for Swisher to come onboard.
Reba McEntire proved she is more than just a country superstar when she led her own TV show — appropriately called Reba. The sitcom ran for six seasons from October 2001 to February 2007. McEntire starred as a single mother raising her three children — played by JoAnna Garcia Swisher, Scarlett Pomers and Mitch Holleman […]
“We are working on that. We really, really want JoAnna to be on the show,” he told Us and other reporters at the NBCUniversal Backlot Summer Experience in August.
Abbott, who worked on Reba, said there wasn’t a specific character they had in mind for Swisher.
“We have a couple of roles that we are juggling to decide which would be the most fun for her,” he noted. “Because we don’t want to bring somebody on and just have them be on. We want to bring them on and have — even if it’s just for us — a fun reason that they are playing the role that they are playing. But JoAnna is at the top of the list of the people we want to bring on as guest stars.”
Happy’s Place returns to NBC on Friday, November 7, at 8 p.m. ET before streaming the next day on Peacock.
