Reba McEntire Named KFC’s New Colonel Sanders

Country music singer Reba McEntire will be Kentucky Fried Chicken’s next Colonel Sanders.

KFC announced the move via Twitter on Thursday, tweeting a video of Reba as Colonel Sanders singing at a country bar with the caption “Nothing to see here, folks. Nope, nothin’ at all. Just the same old Colonel with a new flavor of fried chicken.”

Following the announcement, Colonel Sanders became a trending topic on Twitter in New York. McEntire herself simply tweeted a photo that depicted the singer facing a vanity decorated with the Colonel Sanders getup.

KFC is also in the midst of advertising its new Smoky Mountain BBQ fried chicken.

“We’re super excited about this,” KFC’s senior corporate chef Bob Das told Us Weekly. “It’s kind of a combination of all the regions of BBQ. We call it the BBQ belt.”

McEntire is the first woman to play the role, though several celebrities have taken it on over the years, including Rob Lowe and Randy Quaid. Despite this, McEntire will essentially don the same costume her male predecessors have worn, including the white suit, glasses and goatee/mustache combination.

McEntire will be filling the shoes of KFC’s last Colonel Sanders, actor Christopher Boyer, who is best known for playing Robert E. Lee in the 2012 film Lincoln.