Reba McEntire Says She ‘Dreaded’ Coaching ‘The Voice’ at First

Reba McEntire just re-upped her coaching gig on The Voice for a whole new season.

In a new interview on Late Night With Seth Meyers, she says she can’t wait to be back on set — but that’s a completely different point of view than she had when she signed on to do her first season of the show.

“I was really dreading it at first,” the singer admits, “Because I don’t wanna tell anybody they suck.”

McEntire’s talked about that in the past: In 2020, she said that showrunners offered her the coaching job for the show’s very first season, back in 2011. At the time, she said no, for the same reason — she didn’t want to crush contestants’ dreams of making it in music.

Read More: Reba McEntire Set to Return to The Voice For Season 28

Instead, the role went to Blake Shelton, who remained a coach on the show for an impressive 12 consecutive years.

During that 2020 interview, McEntire said she had some regrets about turning down The Voice. “After you see a very successful show, you’re like, ‘Shoot, I should’ve done that!'” she continued.

But McEntire got a second chance when Shelton stepped down in 2023. She served as a coach for three consecutive seasons, took a break for one, and is now returning for Season 28.

Now, the singer says that the part of the show she was worried about — sending talented singers home — isn’t as bad as she thought it might be.

“The way we did it, the first time I was on The Voice, it was more helpful and encouraging,” McEntire continues. “And [the coaches] that are coming back now: Snoop [Dogg], Michael [Bublé], myself and Niall [Horan], we’re nice people. We encourage. We lift up.”

Season 28 of The Voice is set to premiere this fall on NBC. It’ll run concurrently with the second season of McEntire’s sitcom Happy’s Place, which features some of the original cast and crew of her 2000s show Reba. The singer’s boyfriend, actor Rex Linn, also plays a character on that show.