For Fire Country fans, getting to enjoy new episodes on Friday nights has been a staple every week. But there's some disappointing news to share for those who were looking forward to ending their week with a new episode tonight on CBS. But that's not even the worst part.
After the airing of Fire Country season 4 episode 12 on Friday, March 13, CBS won't be following up with a new episode on Friday, March 20. There's going to be a bit of a wait for the airing of season 4 episode 13, which is set to be a two-part crossover event with spinoff series Sheriff Country. While it's frustrating to face a week without a new episode, there's good explanation as to why.
CBS will be airing two back-to-back NCAA March Madness basketball games on Friday, March 20. Of course, that also means that there won't be a new episode of Sheriff Country. In the usual timeslot for the hit procedural dramas, the network airs the Northern Iows vs. St. John's game beginning at 7 p.m. ET, and immediately following, the California Baptist vs. Kansas game begins at 9:30 p.m. ET.
It's especially frustrating for Fire Country fans to face another break from new episodes since the series just returned from a two-month break. After finishing its 2025 run ahead of the holidays on Dec. 19, the series went off the air until Feb. 27 in order stay out of the way of NBC's presentation of the Winter Olympics. But here we are at another two-week break.
Fire Country returns with new episodes in April 2026
Yes, that's right. Fire Country won't be back on Friday, March 27 either. The reason? The same exact one. If you're not following March Madness, then you might not realize that the tournament continues until the end of the month. Next Friday, CBS also airs two back-to-back NCAA games during the Fire Country and Sheriff Country timeslots, but we don't know who's playing in them just yet.
One of the common grievances fans of broadcast television shows run into is sometimes frequent breaks in between episodes. Sometimes it can feel like shows are also coming and going off the air without explanation, but these major small screen networks are also the home to lots of events and special presentations that can preempt are favorite shows or result in reruns.
Thankfully, we already know when Fire Country and Sheriff Country will return with new episodes. As previously mentioned, the shows come back on Friday, April 3 in their regular timeslots for the two-part crossover event. Fire's episode "The Bravest" and Sheriff's episode "The Finest" are both the thirteenth episodes of their respective seasons and share continuity, so you have to watch both!
Both shows will have 20 total episodes this season, which means after the crossover airs on April 3, there will still be seven episodes each left to air. That should easily push the season finales to sometime in late May, and while CBS hasn't revealed if the remaining episodes will air uninterrupted by any additional breaks, we at least have a lot to look forward to this spring.