Cole Talks Filming Dad Steve’s Prison Sentencing and More (Exclusive)

Cameras were rolling on Season 3 of The McBee Dynasty when patriarch Steve McBee received his prison sentence for federal crop insurance fraud in 2025, but Cole McBee explained to TV Insider why the family continued to film for their Bravo show during that “tough time” in their lives.

“Since the beginning, we’ve wanted to put everything out there,” Cole explained. “We’ve been really authentic and that’s kind of what we built our show on, good or bad. We just wanted to embrace it and put out our story and show everybody … this sucks, it’s a big deal, but we are going through real life struggles. We just wanted to put the truth out there and show what battles we’re facing and how we’re working through them and how we’re getting through everything together as a family.

Steve received a sentence of 24 months in prison and two years supervised release afterwards. He’ll also have to pay more than $4 million in restitution.

Below, Cole shares more of what viewers can expect in Season 3, including something exciting in his own personal life. Scroll down for the rest of the interview.

Is there anything you’re not looking forward to watching back this season?

The first two seasons, I have had things I should not have done or said that I was not looking forward to watching. But I feel like [my fiancée] Kacie and I are in a very good spot. The last couple years of our life we’ve been growing up together and really enjoying life. There’s a lot of good things coming this season. We’re moving past a lot of the situation with my dad and finally getting past all this, so rewatching some of that won’t be too much fun. You’ll get to see us emotional – the day of, the day after his sentencing, right then and there, you’re going to get to see it all. So some of that stuff won’t be fun to watch back but it’ll be alright. We’ll get through it.

Is there anything you’re looking forward to watching back or for people to see?

Oh yeah. I don’t want to give away too much, but Kacie and I have some really big things happening this season. We are having another kid, so we talk about that and finding that out, and then just some other really big steps in our life that we take. There’s a lot of surprises this season. You guys got to see Kacie and I when we were growing up the most through our years of having kids, getting engaged, and hopefully getting married one day. You guys get to see it all. There’s a lot of fun in there. There’s so much new and so many surprises this season.

Did you film the proposal for the show?

Yes, we did. It will be on the show. It was such a cool night. Kacie really deserved something special and I think she loved it. It was a special night. It will be cool for everyone to watch that.

Paul Andrews/Bravo

What would you say is the main source of drama or tension this season?

Our life and our businesses have really took a different direction. We aren’t row cropping, where we were one of the biggest farmers in Missouri. Now we’re not farming, we’re just ranching, so you see our business with everything going on with my dad, we had to really pivot. We went through a lot of struggles. At one point, we weren’t sure if we were going to make it through it or if we were going to lose everything. We’re still not sure. We’re still fighting every day. We’re getting to where we need to be and we feel good, but through the last couple years, we weren’t really sure which way we were going to pivot and where the businesses were going to go. That’s probably the biggest storyline this year – just how we had to endure the situation with my dad and go from being the biggest farmer in Missouri to not farming anything, to pivoting our businesses to still be able to make money and make it work with everything going on. That’s kind of what we’re doing now and really focusing on our meat company and our meat side and our cattle, and then trying to push the car washes as much as we can.

How has being on the show changed your family dynamic?

I will say, with a show you say a lot more than you normally would, I guess. You talk about situations a lot more than you normally would. There is a lot more drama. We are pretty drama-filled, and then when the show is airing you’re like, ‘Why did you say that about me?’ You’re watching it back and kind of getting mad. But at the end of the day, it’s fun to see the good times going back. We got to watch [my daughter] Blair getting born on the last episode of last season. That was the coolest thing ever. Seeing the good moments as a family is fun to do together. It’s changed the fact that we all have voices now. We are not scared of confrontation with each other. Before, you might have not said something at a family dinner. Now, everything gets said. There’s nothing that is held back, that’s for sure.

Do you see yourself continuing to film the show as long as they’ll have you?

I see us filming the show as long as they would want us to. I really get embarrassed watching myself back. Watching yourself on TV is one of the most embarrassing things ever, especially when you do embarrassing things. But we really enjoy it and it brings us together. As long as they give us the opportunity and platform to do it, we’re going to do it.

The McBee Dynasty, Season 3 Premiere, Monday, June 15, 9/8c, Bravo