There’s something missing from CBS’ The Road, and it makes all the difference. The show has star power (Keith Urban, Blake Shelton, Gretchen Wilson) and drama.
There’s plenty of musical talent and the sort of relatable stories that will bring Ep. 1 viewers back for Ep. 2.
American Idol, The Voice and X Factor have all of this though, and in 2025 those programs are more than a bit formulaic.
Missing is a host, and as a result you’ll find no gimmicks, hollow cast interviews or wasted television time when the show premieres on Sunday.
When Does The Road Premiere?
- The Road premieres on CBS at 9PM ET on Oct. 19.
- Blake Shelton and Taylor Sheridan are executive producers, but the Yellowstone creator doesn’t appear on camera during Ep. 1.
- Filming took place last March and April in Texas, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
What Is The Road?
Taylor Sheridan’s singing reality series comes across more like a documentary following 12 singers eager to get past some obstacle guarding their dream.
The prize is opening a show for Urban, $250,000 and a recording contract, but really, it’s the fulfillment of sacrifices made to get them there.
Related: Everything We Know About The Road, Blake Shelton’s Reality Show
In most cases those sacrifices are tangible (more on this in a moment), and that is the second brilliant decision producers made.
Expect a group of men and women old enough to have lived some life, not 20-year-old TikTok influencers with a guitar and good makeup. Sex appeal is not something being offered on Sunday nights this fall.
The Road Contestants
Meet the 12 Singers On The Road
Below you’ll find a list of all 12 singers hoping to impress Urban, Shelton, Wilson and in-person voters this season. We’ve listed them by age — the majority are over 30, and if you’re a country die-hard you’ve likely heard of one or two.
Channing Wilson (49 years old, from Lafayette, Ga.)
Britnee Kellogg (40, Anthem, Ariz.)
Adam Sanders (36, Lake City, Fla.)
Forrest McCurren (35, Jefferson County, Mo.)
Billie Jo Jones (34, Emory, Texas)
Cody Hibbard (32, Adair, Okla.)
Briana Adams (30, Winchester, Texas)
Jenny Tolman, (29, Nashville, Tenn.)
Olivia Harms (29, Canby, Ore.)
Jon Wood (28, Wake Forest, N.C.)
Cassidy Daniels (25, Marion, N.C.)
Blaine Bailey (23, Tahlequah, Okla.)
The series premiere finds the group gathered for a show in Fort Worth, Texas, but each singer’s time on television is isolated. So it’s essentially 12 mini-bios before 12 live performances.
At the end, a mix of crowd voting and Urban/Shelton’s opinions decides who goes home. The two men are fair, but not shy to call out a singer if he’s lost the room.
The individual artist segments are where the magic happens.
Kellogg is a divorced mother who can’t get to Nashville because of the confines of her parenting agreement. Tolman is a new mom filmed pumping breast milk during her on-camera interview. She literally has to speak up to be heard over the sound of the machine.
Taste of Country has told part of Hibbard’s story before. The Oklahoma native spiraled after injury kept him from the Navy at age 18. His mental health struggles were compounded by an addiction to prescription drugs, but he’s found a way to put that into song.
Channing Wilson’s story is one that isn’t told during the premiere, but the lines on his face are evidence that he’s seen things. Like so many of the contestants, he’s enjoyed sips of success (co-writing Luke Combs‘ “She Got the Best of Me”) and he knows time is running out to play the biggest stages.
This level of maturity eliminates the need for a host because no one has to try to get scared, wallpaper-personality high schoolers to say something compelling.
Country music as a genre would be wise to soak up this lesson: 30 and 40-year-old singers and songwriters intrinsically have more, better stories to tell and are better-prepared to tell them, yet everyone is always searching for the next hot thing.
One gets the sense that for many in this group, this is a final shot. The on-camera team of advisors do a good job of recognizing this vulnerability without coddling. You’ll hear Urban state the limitations of one singer’s voice and Shelton/Urban wonder aloud if another has what it takes to play bigger rooms.
Gretchen Wilson’s influence is limited in this first episode. She talks one singer through an illness and offers a few broad thoughts on the challenge ahead, but her role as manager isn’t as defined as Urban and Shelton’s.
That figures to change in the upcoming weeks as the audience learns about the peculiar traits that propel and hold back each singer.
See the Most Played Country Song from the Year You Were Born
Who had the most played country song during the year you were born? This list is a fascinating time capsule of prevalent trends from every decade in American history. Scroll through to find your birth year and then click to listen. Some of these songs have been lost through the years, many of them for good reason!
Gallery Credit: Billy Dukes
