Fire Country Season 3 is set to return after some time away with its incoming Episode 16. Fire Country‘s usual CBS timeslot has been taken over by the ongoing March Madness basketball tournament.

The CBS TV drama was last heard from in early March. Episode 15 aired on March 15 before the show went silent for the rest of the month.

In that story, Max Thieriot’s Bode Donovan and his firefighting cohorts were left looking into the devastating side effects of possible pesticide poisoning that had Manny (Kevin Alejandro) on death’s door before he was saved thanks to the quick actions of Stephanie Arcila’s Gabby.

When Will Fire Country Season 3 Return?

After several weeks away, CBS confirmed when Fire Country Season 3 will return with its hotly anticipated Episode 16.

According to upcoming listings for the network (per Parade), Fire Country Season 3, Episode 16, will air on CBS at 9 p.m. ET on Friday, April 4, 2025.

Episode 16’s release will mark a new beginning of its regular schedule for the series, as it returns to its typical Friday night window. With five episodes left in the season, Season 3 is set to run right through to the end of April, starting with Episode 16.

The reason for Fire Country‘s absence on CBS for the last two weeks of March had to do with other programming obligations from the network itself, with the ongoing NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball tournament shaking up its usual schedule.

This meant that instead of new episodes of the hit fire-fighting drama releasing on its usual day or time, CBS stations across the U.S. committed to running games from the “March Madness” bracket.

With the first two rounds of the tournament taking up multiple full programming days for CBS, wholesale changes needed to be made, and some of TV’s biggest series were put on hold because of it.

As the tournament is widdled down, there will be fewer games to air and more time for CBS to return to its regularly scheduled programming, including new episodes of shows like Fire Country.

The series took a break at the perfect time, though, as it left fans guessing where the next major arc of the show would go. At least knowing what we know not, it seems as though the conspiracy surrounding potential pesticide poisoning at the series’s central forest fire camp will be the focus, at least for the next few episodes.

Episode 16’s official synopsis (per The Futon Critic) also teases an incoming story crossover between the mainline series and the recently debuted Sheriff Country spin-off.

It will see Max Thieriot’s Bode Donovan “and his aunt, Sheriff Mickey Fox, investigate the attempted murder of her estranged father:”