Warning: spoilers are ahead for the series premiere of The Road in the 2025 TV schedule on CBS, available streaming next day with a Paramount+ subscription.
Country music has come to CBS in a big way this fall with The Road, a music competition show that already set itself apart from series like NBC's The Voice and ABC's American Idol. Following country superstar Keith Urban's tour and featuring Blake Shelton as an on-screen executive producer and Grammy-winner Gretchen Wilson as Tour Manager, The Road showcases twelve singers who are hoping to make it big in country music. That is, it showcased twelve singers until the first elimination, and the premiere sold me on why Wilson described Urban as a "force to be reckoned with" in an interview with CinemaBlend.
Keith Urban spent most of the premiere sitting in the shadows to watch his twelve openers alongside Blake Shelton, as they'd be choosing which of the bottom three performers would be sent home. He took the stage before the end, however, and the audience erupted into cheers when the headliner started to sing. Tour Manager Gretchen Wilson, who clarified to CinemaBlend that nothing about The Road is scripted despite Yellowstone's Taylor Sheridan on board as another EP, only had good things to say about working with Urban:
He's incredible. Just being around him makes you want to be a better singer, a better musician, a better human. Every single performance, [he] came out there and just killed it. I got to watch every single one along with the contestants. When they were done with their part, they would stand side of stage along with me, and sometimes saw the other artists that were there. We would watch him perform, and really he's amazing. His stamina and his dedication and his technique, it's a force to be reckoned with.
The first contestant to be eliminated was Blaine Bailey, the youngest of the original twelve at just 23 years old. He'd opened up about using the issues he faces as a Native American to fuel his music, but Shelton and Urban decided that his performance just didn't win the crowd over well enough to continue on The Road. There's a time and a place for all kinds of music; according to the country stars, Bailey's song and Urban's concert in Fort Worth, TX just weren't right for each other on that particular night.
The critiques that Keith Urban had for Blaine Bailey came across as the product of experience rather than wanting to discourage him. It reminded me of how else Gretchen Wilson described the singer, who she saw in action regularly as The Road's Tour Manager:
Keith is the constant professional. Just being around him makes you want to be a better you. I loved being around him, and also the energy and everything that was coming off of the contestants, the musicians themselves. It was just a really, really cool place to be. You can tell being in the environment that there was something really special happening, and you felt privileged to be in the room.
The remaining eleven contestants likely couldn't hope for a stronger team of country artists for a TV show. Not only is Keith Urban on board as the headliner (despite making headlines recently for his personal life), but Blake Shelton spent many successful years on The Voice and Gretchen Wilson's career spanned decades even before she won Season 13 of The Masked Singer.
The trio were generally so busy behind the scenes that they didn't get to spend much time together when the cameras weren't rolling, but according to Wilson, they did "during the filming." She went on:
We had occasions on almost every day to sort of just pow wow and meet up with each other, whether it be in a hallway [or elsewhere]. We all really had a very specific job to do during production. There wasn't a lot of time that Blake, Keith, and I were all in the same room. That was kind of reserved for specific times when we needed to be in the room together in order to discuss certain things. But these were clubs that were, I wouldn't say that they were as big like an arena like Keith is used to playing, and Blake. It wasn't like that. They were more like big clubs, but a 13-camera shoot.
It's no wonder that the headliner, the on-screen EP, and the Tour Manager didn't have much time to hang out, and the series premiere showed just how hands-on Gretchen Wilson's job was with helping the contestants. In fact, I can imagine that Billie Jo Jones might not have been able to power through her illness to perform if not for Wilson helping out. That's not to say that she didn't have good times with Blake Shelton and Keith Urban, however, as she explained:
That's a big production, so there's always something going on, and we all have specific jobs, but every time we were together, we crack each other up. I mean, Blake is hysterical. I tell him all the time, 'If you decide to hang up your music music career, you could easily be a stand up comedian.' He's just hysterical.
The next new episode of The Road airs on Sunday, October 26 at 9:30 p.m. ET, following Justin Hartley's Tracker. The remaining eleven contestants along with Keith Urban, Blake Shelton, and of course Gretchen Wilson are advancing to Dallas, and it's a safe bet that the audiences in that area of Texas will be expecting as good of a time as the Fort Worth crowd did.
The contestants are competing for a grand prize of $250,000, a recording contract, and a slot at Stagecoach Country Music Festival 2026. They'll also be joined by more country superstars as special guest advisors, including Jordan Davis, Karen Fairchild, and Dustin Lynch.
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