Max Thieriot’s ‘Fire Country’ gets an extra showcase

Max Thieriot stars in a special airing of “Fire Country” Sunday on CBS.

Football-championship season can mean good news for certain series.

Networks often decide to give extra postgame airings to shows they want to boost ... and on Sunday, Jan. 29, CBS’ “Fire Country” receives such treatment, as the Max Thie riot starring drama gets a showcase outside its usual Friday slot, following the AFC Championship contest. In the new story, a plane crash sparks a blaze that Bode Donovan (Thieriot) and other firefighting volunteers among Northern California prison inmates unite to battle.

Thieriot recently ended his connection to “SEAL Team” with the death of his character on that show, now seen on Paramount+, so he’s now exclusive to “Fire Country” – something that could have been foreseen, since he’s also a creator and executive producer of the latter series. He claimed at the start of the television season that he had the energy to keep doing both programs, but his larger commitment clearly was to the latter one.

Having based “Fire Country” (which already has been renewed for a second season) on his own experiences growing up in the Sonoma County region that the show concerns, Thieriot reflects, “I’d say the stuff that’s kind of most memorable right now is the stuff that’s really occurred in the past few years ... obviously, a large portion of the Santa Rosa being destroyed, Coffey Park and all those neighborhoods, all the lives that were tragically lost. It was a really, really devastating fire, so I think that one probably has the biggest impact on me emotionally.”

Additional “Fire Country” stars include Diane Farr, Billy Burke, Jordan Calloway, Kevin Alejandro (who also directed a recent episode), Jules Latimer, Stephanie Arcila and W. Tre Davis. For viewers who may not have seen the show yet – one aim of the after-football scheduling being to draw more viewers to it – executive producer Tony Phelan says they shouldn’t worry about not being able to get up to speed quickly.

“We conceived of it as having some serialized elements,” he allows, “but I think it will be easy for the audience to come in if they if they have missed some episodes. There are obviously fire events, rescue events. Our firefighters battle wildfires from the Oregon border all the way down to Mexico. They also do water rescue; there’s all sorts of stories to tell. And we’ve got quite a few mysteries at the center of our town.”

Thieriot confirms that giving the fictional characters of “Fire Country” is fulfilling his goal to give their real-life counterparts weekly TV attention. “They do these amazing incredible heroic rescues,” he notes, “and they’re constantly saving the world (within their immediate area), but I think they’re just also really kindhearted people. That’s something that’s important in the world today in general.”