(Photo by: Sergei Bachlakov/CBS)

Fire Country could be the start of a new franchise for CBS. Chief George Cheeks spoke about the popular drama at an event earlier this week, and he revealed that the network had started looking at extending the series when it was given an order for its back nine episodes for season one.

Starring Max Thieriot, Billy Burke, Kevin Alejandro, Diane Farr, Stephanie Arcila, Jordan Calloway, and Jules Latimer, the series follows a convict (Thieriot) looking to shorten his prison sentence by joining a prison release firefighting crew in Northern California.

Cheeks said the following about the CBS series, per Deadline:

“We are focused on mass-appeal franchises. We started with expanding universes, reimagining, but also creating new franchises. And again, this season’s number one show was Fire Country, which completely lends itself to building out a whole new universe. So it is really important for us to double down on a franchise focus.

It became very clear that not only was the show special, it really felt like this could be a great example of us building together a franchise from scratch. And so I’m like, ‘you guys, congratulations, you got your back nine. Now let’s start talking about ideas for new extensions.’ They’ve already come up with some great ones … We’re not necessarily looking at next year. We’re looking when they’re ready. That’s the beauty of the gestation process. We know that we’re doubling down on this one, so let’s get it right. And whether that that means three years down the road or whether that means a Paramount+ original or a CBS original, we’ll see where it lands.”

Season two of Fire Country is scheduled to return to CBS this fall but could be delayed due to the writers strike.

What do you think? Do you want to see Fire Country expanded into a new franchise on CBS? Would you watch a related series or, is one enough?