Why Rex Linn thinks it would’ve been weird for Tom and Brenda to date on “Young Sheldon”

Emlyn TravisWed, November 11, 2026 at 11:00 PM UTC

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Rex Linn and Melissa Peterman on ‘Young Sheldon’Credit: CBS; Bill Inoshita/CBS via GettyKey Points -

Rex Linn says his Young Sheldon character Tom almost dated Melissa Peterman’s Brenda.

He was asked by fiancée Reba McEntire if that would’ve been “too weird” for him, given her and Peterman are close friends.

“I just didn’t feel like Tom would be there,” he said, noting he pushed for Tom to date McEntire’s character June instead.

Rex Linn is looking back at his Young Sheldon character’s almost-relationships… including one that he thinks would’ve been too far out of his comfort zone.

In the book Young Sheldon: The (Juicier-Than-Meemaw’s-Brisket) Inside Story of the Hit Comedy, the 69-year-old actor told author Jessica Radloff that he repeatedly asked for his character Tom to be set up with his real-life partner Reba McEntire’s June on the celebrated sitcom.

“Reba and I pushed [a Tom/June pairing] constantly!” Linn said. “Only I took it a step further, and I said, ‘How about June and Tom in the back of Tom’s car after a football game on Friday night?’ and Steve goes, ‘Well, I don’t know about that.’”

Reba McEntire and Rex Linn in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Nov. 10, 2025Credit: Maya Dehlin Spach/Getty

The suggestion did, however, get the ball rolling on the idea of Principal Petersen having a potential love interest… it just wasn’t who Linn originally had in mind.

“Eventually they started talking about maybe June and Tom being together, but then weeks later, the conversation switched, and they started talking about [Melissa Peterman’s and my] characters getting together!” he recalled. “I was like, ‘Wait a minute, what happened to June?!’”

Linn explained that he ended up asking if Tom and Brenda were going to become an item after they filmed an episode that featured the pair meeting at a bar.

“I was like, ‘Am I getting hooked up with her?’” he continued. “Steve said, ‘Maybe.’ And I said, ‘Well, what happened to the June thing?’”

He acknowledged, however, that McEntire’s busy schedule at the time may have “had something to do with” why sparks never flew between Tom and June on the show. “But then Melissa and I never got together either,” he pointed out. “Tom became an old loner.”

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McEntire proceeded to ask Linn, whom she’s been dating since 2020, if it would’ve been “too weird” for his character to date Peterman’s on the show. After all, McEntire and Peterman have been best friends for well over two decades.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t. I just didn’t feel like Tom would be there,” Linn responded, before adding, “But June, come on, man! June’s one of the hottest salon chicks ever!”

Reba McEntire and Melissa Peterman in Studio City, Calif., on Oct. 9, 2024Credit: Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty

Linn and Peterman both starred across all seven seasons of Young Sheldon, which aired from 2017 until 2024. McEntire, meanwhile, made her debut as June in season three before going on to appear several more times in its fourth and fifth seasons.

Despite falling in love offscreen, Linn and McEntire, who got engaged in 2024, never actually shared a scene together throughout Young Sheldon’s run. Co-creator Steve Molaro explained to Radloff that the couple’s romance just “never found its way into the scripts.”

“In general the storylines were going to be about the main characters like Sheldon or Mary or George Sr. and then the characters in the town like Tom or June would filter through those stories,” he added. “It would have been tricky to establish a side storyline like that and keep it in the context of something going on in George Sr.’s life.”

Young Sheldon: The (Juicier-Than-Meemaw’s-Brisket) Inside Story of the Hit Comedy is available now.

on Entertainment Weekly

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