Steven McBee Jr. laughs when people compare his life to Yellowstone.
“We’re the Temu version of Yellowstone.”
It is an easy comparison to make.
Steven McBee Jr. is the oldest of four brothers whose lives revolve around a family farm and ranch, thousands of acres, cattle, bison, business pressure, relationship drama, and Bravo’s hit series The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys, which returns for Season 3.
For our Explore Issue, we head to rural Missouri to spend time with the family behind one of television's buzziest shows. At first glance, it feels a lot likeYellowstone. The difference, Steven Jr. says? More brotherly loyalty.
“We don’t have a train station and we’re probably not quite as cool,” he says.
As for Beth Dutton?
“Beth is kind of my brother Cole. A lot of similarities there aside from it’s my brother.”
Then comes the real distinction.
“In our dynasty, we love our brothers.”
That may be why The McBee Dynasty resonates. Beneath the drama is a family that genuinely loves each other, depends on each other, and works together every day.
“The premise of the show is that we have a family-ran farming and ranching operation in North Missouri. It’s one of the largest privately owned operations in the state, and it comes with all sorts of drama that you’d never expect to find out in the middle of nowhere on a farm,” he says.
That drama has clearly connected. The show is now in Season 3.
“I didn’t think there’d be a way to top seasons one and two as far as what happened while we were filming,” he says. “And season three takes it up a notch. Between my dad’s situation, new babies, and everything we have going on... it's all going to air out this season.”
What many viewers may not realize is that The McBee Dynasty did not begin with Bravo discovering a polished television family already waiting for its close-up. It started with Steven Jr. stepping into an entirely different kind of reality show.
“I was on a dating show."
That show was Joe Millionaire: For Richer or Poorer, where two men dated a group of women who did not know which one was wealthy and which one was not.
During filming, the top six women visited his hometown, which meant they visited the farm and ranch.
“Once the producers saw where we lived, our family, and the dynamic, the idea moved pretty quickly. The reality TV world is pretty tight-knit, and Yellowstone was the biggest thing on TV at the time. People started saying, ‘There's a family in Missouri living a real-life farm and ranch version of this. I think we have a show on our hands.’”
The first pilot was filmed in October 2022 and sent to multiple networks.
“After that pilot got sent out, we actually had a bidding war! You could tell the appetite for the show was there.”
His brothers were in. The women in the family were another story.
“The women in my family, including my mom, did not want anything to do with reality TV.”
The funny part is that while the show is called The McBee Dynasty, the family is not actually a dynasty in the way most people assume.
“So here’s what’s crazy. We’re a first generation farming family. My dad bought the very first farm back in 1998.”
That is one of the most interesting parts of the McBee story. The operation may look like something passed down for a century, but the family is still actively building the legacy viewers assume already exists.
“This isn't third, fourth, or fifth-generation land,” Steven Jr. says. “We're still building it. We're still making payments on it. There's still a mortgage on this land. One of the biggest questions we face is how we keep this ranch around for the next generation of McBees.”
That future has become more personal as his brothers begin families of their own.
“My brothers are having their first babies. I hope to have kids too, soon. And, you know, how do we keep this farm and ranch here for the next generations of McBees?”
For Steven Jr., the family business side was always part of the dream. Farming and ranching became the obsession.
“The business side was always part of the picture. Entrepreneurship runs deep in my family. My grandparents had it, my dad has it, and all four of us boys definitely caught the bug.”
When the family first started getting into farming and ranching, Steven Jr. and his brothers were only six or seven years old.
“We were out on the farm any chance we had the opportunity to. The minute we got out of high school and college, we were on the farm full time and we’ve been there ever since.”
Today, that world includes 2,000 head of cattle, 250 bison, a meat facility, an online beef, pork, and bison business, and an on-farm fulfillment center that ships directly from the farm.
“You want to talk about vertically integrated… we have every single step of it controlled and we even ship it out ourselves now.”
It also includes work that no one-hour episode can fully capture.
“Each episode is only an hour. For every five minutes you see one of us in a tractor, we've probably spent 12 or 14 hours in that tractor that day.”
That is the part of the story Steven Jr. wants people to understand. The cameras may bring exposure, but the work is not manufactured for television.
“You wake up every day with a plan, but there's a saying: you make your plans and God laughs. You're dealing with live animals, and they don't care what's on your schedule. If they jump a fence, your plans change immediately. At that point, your day revolves around what the animals need.”
When asked what keeps him up at night as a business owner, his answer is not fame, ratings, or what viewers will think.
It is rain.
“When you're in farming and ranching, the thought of a drought can literally keep you up all night. You're constantly checking the weather forecast. I swear you're either doing the rain dance or cussing at the weatherman because there's no rain in sight.”
That's because rain equals survival.
“You need the grass for the cows and you need the rain for the crops."
That is why one of the biggest misconceptions about agriculture frustrates him.
“What people don't understand is that there may not be a tougher industry when it comes to turning a profit relative to the hours you put in. It's seven days a week. You're essentially on call 24 hours a day. Financially, it can be a tough way to make a living, but it's also one of the most fulfilling.”
Steven Jr. isn't a reality star escaping hard work. He's a rancher doing the work while cameras follow along. As the oldest of four brothers, that responsibility extends far beyond the ranch.
"My nickname is accurately 'the father figure. I've always been mature for my age, and I've naturally fallen into that fatherly role with my younger brothers. I find myself giving advice, helping with the business, and helping with relationships. even though I can't always seem to figure out my own relationships.”
Family is the heart of the show, but Steven Jr. is honest about the fact that family is also the hardest part.
“Managing a family, without a doubt,” he says when asked what is harder, running a business or managing a family. You're dealing with human emotion, and that's something you can't predict,” he says. “In business, two plus two always equals four. When you're dealing with family, it doesn't always work that way.”
That loyalty can look funny from the outside.
“We could be on the brink of throwing down physically during the middle of the day and that night be sitting around the dinner table laughing like nothing happened."
Ask him which brother gets under his skin...
“Cole.”
Ask who makes him laugh the most? Also Cole.
“He's annoying, but he’s also the funniest one we’ve got.”
Reality television has made that family dynamic public, which comes with both connection and consequences.
“There are positives and negatives. One of the best parts is the support. Every day, I wake up to messages from people telling us how much they enjoy watching and how much our family's story resonates with them.”
Still, he knows what fame costs.
"The challenge is having your flaws on display for the world to judge. But it also creates an opportunity for self-reflection, helping me learn from my mistakes and grow over time."
That may be the most revealing thing he says.
“I'd much rather be an imperfect person who's real and trying to get better every day than someone who's curating an image for the camera,” he says.
Steven Jr. also wants viewers to see the beauty behind the lifestyle. His favorite moment from filming came during Season 1, when the family traveled to Montana’s Flathead Indian Reservation.
“We rounded up 30 bison on horseback in the middle of the reservation, stayed in teepees, and crossed rivers on horseback. It was eye-opening to learn the history of the reservation, and to hear the stories shared around the campfire.”
More than the places they go, the McBees offer a window into a lifestyle built on family, livestock, weather, food, and grit.
“I love that we're getting the opportunity to showcase a way of life America was built on.”
And surely, food is a big part of their world.
“I probably eat more steak than just about anyone. I’m a Kansas City strip guy. Medium rare.”
Anything more?
“You’re chewing on a piece of leather."
Steven Jr. may be a reality star, but he's also a rancher who checks the weather more than the headlines and starts his mornings with country music.
“Most people expect cowboys and ranchers to be stoic. I've always worn my heart on my sleeve.”
When he talks about the future, he doesn't talk about fame or television.
“I love every acre of this ranch, but it's the people, the animals, and the family that make it what it is.”
For all the Yellowstone comparisons, that's the biggest difference.
The McBees aren't inheriting a dynasty.
They're building one.
Listen to Steven Jr.'s unfiltered interview now streaming everywhere on the Now with Nadine podcast.
“In our dynasty, we love our brothers. We don’t try to kill them.”