Country star Reba McEntire has racked up millions of fans around the world during her 48-year music career.
Quite possibly her biggest fan of all is her boyfriend, Rex Linn, who made us swoon with his reaction to her recent big news.
During this week’s “upfronts” (an event during which TV execs meet with advertisers and press to share more about their programming plans for the next season).
And soon after online, NBC revealed that Reba will be replacing Blake Shelton and joining Niall Horan, Gwen Stefani.
And John Legend in the coveted coach seats as part of The Voice. Unfortunately for Kelly Clarkson fans, it sounds like she will not be returning this year.
“I am going to have my game plan ready to go and we’ve all been talking about it, so it’s going to be something brand new.
‘The Voice’ has never seen it before,” McEntire tells Access Hollywood.
Within hours of the announcement, Linn shared a playful snapshot of McEntire pretending to press her button to spin her chair and vie for a singer to join her team.
“There’s a new judge in town!!! @nbcthevoice #thevoice #fancy,” Linn writes in the caption.
McEntire and Linn have been a dynamic duo romantically since early 2020, but they’ve been friends since 1991. Prior to making things official with Linn, who starred on CSI: Miami, McEntire was married to steer-wrestler Charlie Battles from 1976 to 1987 and to her manager Narvel Blackstock from 1989 to 2015. From 2017 to 2019, she dated retired oil geologist Anthony “Skeeter” Lasuzzo. Soon after McEntire’s mother died, Linn and McEntire reconnected, and their partnership bloomed during the pandemic quarantine. They have been “inseparable” ever since, McEntire tells People.
From the looks of Linn’s frequent and loving Instagram support of his beau, whom he affectionately calls “tater tot,” he’ll be rooting for The Voice’s newest coach each step of the way this fall when she takes over Shelton’s country slot on the coach panel.
This isn’t McEntire’s first rodeo on the music competition show. In 2011, she was a battle advisor for members of Team Shelton and then returned this year as a mega mentor. In 2020, she was actually offered a coaching gig, but revealed on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen in 2021 that she turned it down.
“I said, ‘No, I ‘m going to pass on that,’ because I don’t think I could ever be able to tell somebody that they’re terrible or go find another job or hope you like your nighttime job. I couldn’t do that day in and day out. I just couldn’t do it. So I did pass on it,” McEntire told Cohen. But after some more time to think, she reconsidered: “I mean, after you see a very successful show that’s been running, what, 15 years? Uh, yeah! I ‘m like shoot, I should have done that.”
Fans seem to be (almost) as excited as Linn to learn that McEntire changed her tune.
One shared in the comments of Linn’s post that “I haven’t watched in years (other than when she coached). But I’ll be watching now!!! 👑👑👑👑👑” Another echoed our sentiments when she said, “All you have to do is say Reba and I’m in. 🙌🏻🔥👏🏻❤️”
Season 24 is slated to return this fall, likely in its current time slot: Mondays and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.
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Source: Tampa Bay Times
