New Taylor Sheridan CBS Series ‘The Road’ to Feature Cool Talent

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There’s a new television/competition series coming this fall to CBS called The Road, and it has some really cool, and really uncool folks involved in the production, as well as some names participating in the competition itself that are exciting to see get some recognition.

The series is being executive produced by Taylor Sheridan, who for the uninitiated is the mastermind behind Yellowstone, Landman, and scores of offshoots and other projects. Yellowstone and now Landman have given huge boosts to independent country artists, and the shows have been integral to the independent country revolution, especially with the help of Music Supervisor Andrea von Foerster.

“There is a revolution taking place in country music,” Taylor Sheridan says, and “building a platform … for the next leaders of that revolution is an incredibly exciting venture.”

But to help him build that platform are some very established country stars who in many respects symbolize the antithesis of that country revolution. Co-producing the show with Sheridan and helping host it is Blake Shelton. Where the twelve up-and-coming country hopefuls will perform as part of the competition is opening shows for Keith Urban. Gretchen Wilson will act as “tour manager,” and help choose which contestants get to advance to the next city.

Practically speaking, for a major network like CBS to greenlight a production like this, they probably insisted that some “noticeable names” be involved. Forget that Zach Top and even Tyler Childers are multipliers more popular at the moment than someone like Keith Urban, perhaps the demographic that watches network television would still find Urban more familiar.


It’s who is competing in the series that gives you the most hope. The twelve contestants are Adam Sanders, Billie Jo Jones, Blaine Bailey, Briana Adams, Britnee Kellogg, Cassidy Daniels, Channing Wilson, Cody Hibbard, Forrest McCurren, Jenny Tolman, Jon Wood and Olivia Harms.

Blaine Bailey is a Native American songwriter from Oklahoma whose debut album Home was featured here at Saving Country Music in 2024 and became a fan favorite. Channing Wilson is a hard-charging Outlaw country performer and songwriter who’s had tracks recorded by Luke Combs and others. His 2023 album Dead Man was also a fan favorite here at SCM. And Jenny Tolman’s 2022 album Married in a Honky Tonk might be the best mix of contemporary and traditional country in years.

Other artists previously mentioned here at Saving Country Music include Oregon’s Olivia Harms and Oklahoma’s Cody Hibbard. Unquestionably, whoever chose the talent for this competition had their ear to the ground and found some deserving names to feature.

But of course the big question is how will all of this play out, and will it actually be a springboard for these artists, or just another singing competition that struggles to get traction for the artists beyond the show itself?

For example, Bryce Leatherwood is a traditional country artist who won NBC’s The Voice in 2022. He just released a new self-titled album. Leatherwood currently has 133,000 monthly Spotify listeners, and his biggest track on Spotify has been streamed 800,000 times. Offbeat independent country/roots artist Nick Shoulders has triple the amount of Spotify monthly listeners, and his biggest Spotify track “Rather Low” has nearly 10 million spins. The idea these TV competitions can confer stardom is dubious at best.

That doesn’t mean The Road won’t be different. But it is not The Voice, American Idol, or America’s Got Talent that are the kingmakers these days. It’s social media, it’s virality, and it’s genuine talent rising from obscurity. A show like The Road could perhaps aid that process, but only if one of the contestants or the eventual winner has that unmistakable “it” factor as opposed to simply being adept at navigating the rigors of the competition. Otherwise, a 30-second snippet of a song placed during a key sequence of Landman could be a bigger opportunity.

Either way, The Road will be an interesting thing to keep up with this fall with some worthy talent hopefully receiving a greater spotlight through the new show. After all, Sheridan productions have proven to have a knack for launching country careers, and quite a few of the participates have careers deserving to be launched.

No premier date for the series is available just yet, but it will air on Sunday evenings, with episodes also available on Paramount+.

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