‘Fire Country’ & ‘Sheriff Country’ Crossover Event Set At CBS; Matt Lopez Teases What’s Ahead

EXCLUSIVE: The new seasons of the hit CBS Friday night lineup, Fire Country (Season 5) and Sheriff Country (Season 2), will collide for one night only as part of a two-hour special crossover event. The episode, the 5th for each show, titled “Impossible Choices,” will air on November 6.

Sheriff Country showrunner and executive producer Matt Lopez shared insight into what fans can expect to see in the crossover, which can be found below.

First, here are the loglines for each hour and who will be crossing over.

Part 1, airing from 8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT: When a dangerous prison break escalates into a volatile hostage crisis, Sheriff Mickey Fox (Morena Baccarin) must make a high-stakes decision with personal consequences that could change the course of the case and put lives on the line. Max Thieriot, Kevin Alejandro, and Jules Latimer guest star.

Part 2, airing 9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT: When escaped convicts trigger a dangerous manhunt, Bode (Thieriot) and the Station 42 crew join forces with Sheriff Mickey Fox and her deputies to protect their loved ones and the community caught in the crossfire. Baccarin, Matt Lauria, Michele Weaver, Amanda Arcuri, and Ian Quinlan guest star.

DEADLINE: Matt, what can you tease about the big Sheriff Country and Fire Country crossover? Will the storyline for the episodes be self-contained?

MATT LOPEZ: I would say yes and no. There are references to stuff that the Fire Country gang is playing. Like for Bodie (Thieriot), it is in the continuity. He will talk about things that are happening on Fire Country. Our characters are doing stuff that’s certainly not inconsistent with our continuity, but it’s a standalone adventure. We did the same thing this year as last year’s crossover thanks to the response. People loved it, and CBS was very thrilled.

DEADLINE: Last year’s crossover was pretty late in the season. Did you intentionally plan for this season’s to happen earlier?

LOPEZ: Yes. We wanted to do it earlier because last year the crossover was episode 13. I thought it would be fun to break the story like a feature. So it’s one continuous story. If you watched our last one, when it aired live, it was seamless. There weren’t credits shown between the two.

DEADLINE: We have the loglines, so what can you tease beyond that?

LOPEZ: What we’ll see is Mickey and Manny (Alejandro) figure very, very heavily. There’s a situation that arises on the day of a spectacular windstorm and fire event. There are also escaped convicts on the loose. There are resources required both from 42 in the Fire Country Universe and from the ESCO (Edgewater County Sheriff’s Office) in the Sheriff Country Universe. There’s this real push and pull, and as leaders of these particular incidents, Mickey and Manny will have to figure out how to navigate this, and there are personal stakes involved. It’s a real sort of roller coaster episode. I think audiences will love it.

DEADLINE: It sounds like you guys are going all in!

LOPEZ: It feels really, really big. I was over in Vancouver for the Fire Country portion of the shoot, and some very experienced Fire Country crew members who have been there for all five seasons were like, “We’ve never tried to do shit like this before.”

DEADLINE: Is that in reference to explosions, perhaps?

LOPEZ: Yes, and like practical, not CGI. We did some really cool practical stuff.

DEADLINE: Will there be anything big that happens, as far as storylines go, that would continue into each show’s following episodes?

LOPEZ: I am not at liberty to discuss.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Next week, Deadline will continue the conversation with Lopez about Sheriff Country‘s second season in a new post. We discussed Ben McKenzie’s new role and how much viewers can expect to see of him, the shocking cliffhanger from the Season 1 finale that revealed Mickey’s mom is still alive, what’s next for Travis (Chris Gorham) after the character was brought to his knees last season, and, of course, Mickey and Boone (Matt Lauria) tea.

This story has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.