REBA MCENTIRE: I've Never Been HAPPIER

WITH A GOOD MAN, TRUE FRIENDS AND A NEW SITCOM, THE COUNTRY MUSIC QUEEN HAS EVERYTHING SHE EVER WANTED

- Louise A. Barile, reporting by Amanda Champagne-Meadows.

Reba McEntire planned to enjoy some much deserved downtime when she received a call about starring in Happy's Place. This new sitcom about a woman who inherits a restaurant and with it discovers some long-lost family is scheduled to debut on Oct. 18 on NBC.

"I said, 'I think I'll take next year off," Reba tells Closer. "The angels were going, 'Oh, not yet. We've got something for you to do."" Even if it wasn't literally divine intervention, Happy's Place was the opportunity that Reba had been looking for since the end of her first sitcom, Reba, which ran for six seasons from 2001 to 2007.

"It's my favorite thing to do," says the country music star, who spoke with Closer at the recent Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour. She confides that she prefers the stability and set schedule of a television show over the unpredictable rigors of a cross country music tour. "Consistency is not something I've had the first 20-30 years of my career," Reba explains.