'Big Sky' Sets Return Date For Season 3 As Reba McEntire Joins Cast

With Season 3 confirmed earlier this year, ABC announced that the hit drama Big Sky will return to television on a new night starting on September 21. Originally airing in the prime spot after the long-running medical drama giant Grey's Anatomy on Thursdays, the series will now slot in at the same 10 p.m. spot, though on Wednesdays instead following the network's comedy slate. It joins ABC's heavyweight public school comedy Abbot Elementary in swapping over to Wednesday night.

Along with the move, Big Sky will officially see two new arrivals into the small Montana community. As previously announced, Supernatural star Jensen Ackles bumps up from a guest appearance in the Season 2 finale to a series regular for the upcoming third season while beloved country music icon Reba McEntire makes her grand entrance into the Big Sky canon. Ackles will continue his role as the ten-gallon hat-donning Texas boy Beau Arlen as he fills in for Sheriff Tubb while McEntire enters as Sunny Brick, the matriarch of the powerful Brick family with a temperamental attitude. The Brick family is a wealthy backcountry outfitter with some skeletons in its closet thanks to all of its missing customers.

Details of Season 3 have been kept close to the vest so far, but it'll bring back detectives Cassie Dewell (Kylie Bunbury) and Jenny Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick) for a new mystery in the backcountry of Montana. The series is based on the books of author C.J. Box, which pit the pair of PIs against a mix of local crimes and dangerous criminal organizations operating in the area. Season 2, which wrapped up in May, saw Dewell and Hoyt investigating a seemingly ordinary car accident that spun off into a wider mystery.

Image via ABC

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Season 3 will also see Jamie-Lynn Sigler take a bigger role as her originally recurring character Tonya. The restaurant waitress blossomed from helpless bystander to established criminal associate in Season 2 with her promotion to regular paving the way for deeper involvement in the future. Now with the suspicious Brick family in the picture, the pieces are being laid for a new tale that runs through the crime syndicates of Big Sky.

David E. Kelley created the hit drama for ABC which also features Brian Geraghty, Dedee Pfeiffer, Omar Metwally, and Anja Savcic. Big Sky has been a steady success for the network, but the addition of Ackles and McEntire may draw some extra attention. During the Season 2 finale when Ackles first arrived, the show saw a slight spike in ratings from its penultimate episode with 2.4 million sets of eyes on the series.

Big Sky is currently streaming on Hulu, and returns to ABC on September 21, 2022.