NEW YORK – March Madness may be winding down on CBS, but the tension is still ramping up on the network’s hit TV show “Fire Country,” which follows a prison release firefighting program that is teamed up with full-time first responders in Northern California.

“This is a really exciting episode,” the show’s star and creator, Max Thieriot, tells USA TODAY ahead of Season 3’s return (Friday, 9 ET/PT). Take Morena Baccarin’s character, Sheriff Mickey Fox: “Now we get to really dive deeper into her story. Even though it’s a ‘Fire Country’ episode, there’s a lot of new texture to it.”

Thieriot, 36, explains that learning more about Mickey is intentional: She will headline a new spinoff, “Sheriff Country,” this fall.

“We quickly realized how fans responded to this sense of community and the sense of family and some of the fabric that is “Fire Country,” the series co-creator says of the upcoming spinoff. After seeing fans’ reactions from the series’ first six episodes in 2022, “I was like, ‘I got four different spinoffs.’ I was ready to go.”

His agent told him to “settle down and take a breath,” which Thieriot did, although he admits he’s “always thinking ahead.”

The next ‘Fire Country’ episode was filmed before the California wildfires

In January, a massive wildfire killed at least 29 and burned over 37,000 acres in southern California, devastating neighborhoods and livelihoods. In a now-viral video, a sky cam from Fox’s Los Angeles station captured a water drop executed by first responders over a burgeoning fire in the Hollywood Hills. The drop completely extinguished the flames.

Viewers of Friday’s “Fire Country” episode will see a similar water drop, but the episode was filmed before the real-life January wildfires. Viewers have already seen a fictionalized version of a program that uses incarcerated people as volunteer firefighters. The program has been criticized, including recently by Kim Kardashian, for not properly compensating the workers.

“Clearly with the Los Angeles wildfires, so much attention was brought to the inmate firefighter program,” Thieriot says. “As devastating and tragic and unfathomable as the (wildfires) were, the takeaway I think that we get from that stuff is learning how to be more proactive next time, learning and understanding what these firefighters do and what they sacrifice.

“I guess that’s also how I feel you have to reflect on any difficult situation, right? ‘OK, how do we come out of this stronger?’ To see Los Angeles (receive) the outpouring and outreach of support from other states and agencies and firefighting resources…it’s nice to see in times like this.”

Season 3 wrapped filming in late February, but Thieriot says the tragedy did not impact production of the series. Remaining episodes feature a cameo from country music singer Jelly Roll. Thieriot directed this month’s penultimate episode; the two-part finale airs April 25. The actor teases he’s already tossing around Season 4 ideas, but that work on the next installment won’t officially begin until May.

“Our goal is to tell authentic stories and personal stories, stuff that’s relatable and human,” he says. “We don’t change stuff to make it seem less realistic.”