The eighth season of Emmy Award-winning TrueSouth Presented by Yellawood concludes on Thursday, Nov. 20 at 8:30 p.m. ET on SEC Network. The crew brings back its annual behind-the-scenes episode, documenting their travels through Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi.

This year, between location shoots, the crew went in search of great burgers. And they found them, from sliders smothered in chili and cheese at a snack shack, to fast food burgers eaten on the trunk of a rental car.

To give context to the quest, the team set up a conversation between host and writer John T Edge and executive producer Wright Thompson at Pebble Hill, the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities at Auburn University. They booked a table at Downtown Grill, Richie Jones’s steakhouse in Macon, Ga., where Jenni and Will Harris of White Oak Pastures, from downstate in Bluffton, talked about their family’s work to humanely raise cattle and the ideal grind for grass-fed burgers.

That burger quest included stops at:

• Burger Burger (RIP), Biloxi, Miss.
• Fincher’s Bar-B-Q, Macon, Ga.
• The Grey, Savannah, Ga.
• Hamburger King, Montgomery, Ala.
• Milo’s, suburban Birmingham, Ala.
• Troy’s Snack Shack, Montezuma, Ga.

Music for this episode comes from, among others, Paul Burch, the songwriter, musician, and novelist from Nashville, Tennessee. “Don’t Forget to Come Back Home,” the opening song for this episode, is from Burch’s new album, Cry Love, recorded with the WPA Ballclub.

Season eight began Sept. 2 in Clinton, Ga., where TrueSouth writer and host John T Edge grew up. Inspired by his memoir, House of Smoke, the show tracked Edge’s research trips back to Georgia and his decision to claim Mississippi as home. Three more episodes followed, premiering every two to three weeks.

For Charleston, S.C., TrueSouth chronicled a perfect day in that city, beginning with breakfast at Babas on Cannon or brunch at Koben Café, concluding with dinner at Vern’s, a husband-and-wife-run corner restaurant. To understand Jacksonville, Fla., the team documented the work longshoremen do at the port, marked the migrations that brought new arrivals and new ideas to town and ate pita-stuffed sandwiches. In Ocean Springs, Miss., TrueSouth showcased the art of Walter Anderson, harvested oysters off Deer Island and ate Sunday lunch in a Thai Buddhist temple in the nearby town of Gautier.

Advance press screeners of TrueSouth: Season Eight, Episode Five are available upon request: katie.callahan@espn.com. 

About TrueSouth
TrueSouth is an Emmy Award-winning limited series on Southern food and culture, airing on SEC Network. John T. Edge, author of House of Smoke: A Southerner Goes Searching for Home, writes and hosts the show, which is executive produced by four-time New York Times best-selling author, ESPN senior writer Wright Thompson, and produced by Bluefoot Entertainment.

The series, now in its eighth season, revolves around two food stories told from one place, which TrueSouth sets in conversation to tell bigger stories about Southern beliefs and identities. This season’s featured places are Clinton, Ga.; Charleston, SC.; Jacksonville, Fla; and Ocean Springs, Miss. A special behind-the-scenes episode finishes out season 8. Seasons 1-7 of TrueSouth are available in their entirety on ESPN+.

Music plays an integral role in TrueSouth’s storytelling via in-episode performances and on-screen credits. The TrueSouth playlist on Spotify shares the full soundtrack of every season. A TrueSouth hub on SECSports.com offers a roster of places the crew has visited, along with a road trip planning feature.

About SEC Network
The Southeastern Conference and ESPN launched SEC Network on August 14, 2014. The network televises hundreds of games across the SEC’s 22 sports annually. Programming includes in-depth analysis and storytelling in studio shows such as SEC Nation, Marty & McGee, Read & React and Rally Cap, daily news and information with The Paul Finebaum Show and SEC Now, original content such as the Emmy Award-winning TrueSouth, SEC Storied and SEC Inside, and more. Hundreds of additional live events are available for streaming exclusively on SEC Network’s digital companion, SEC Network+, via the ESPN App and SECNetwork.com. Follow SEC Network on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Twitter/X.

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