Calm down, people. No matter what you heard, Cousin has not moved to Austin, and The Bear is not filming here.
The insane rumor started yesterday Lone Star Live Media posted on their Instagram account that “‘The Bear’ crew spotted possibly filming Season 4 in East Austin.”
Their evidence? A quick clip of a yellow sign outside of Assembly Hall on East Seventh pointing crew towards “The Bear.”
Cue social media madness as people leapt on the idea that the hit FX show about Chicago chefs in a Chicago restaurant, filmed in Chicago and set in Chicago had suddenly packed its knives, changed the menu from Mikey’s signature braciole to brisket, and swapped Lake Michigan for Barton Springs.
Except it’s not The Bear, the Emmy-winning TV show starring Jeremy Allen White (The Iron Claw), The Fantastic Four: First Steps star Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ayo Edebiri (Bottoms).
It’s the Bear, the long-established Austin production company which happened to be filming a commercial there.
The first clue should have been that the sign said “The Bear,” which is the last thing a high-profile production like The Bear is going to do. “They don’t use the real name of the show when they’re shooting,” explained the Bear Executive Producer Elizabeth Spiva. However, the Bear is quite happy to tell people who they are. “We have nothing to hide,” she laughed.
The confusion definitely caught the Austin-based production team off-guard. Thursday morning, they’d turned up for just a regular day on set, “and then we started seeing posts,” Spiva said. Then the phone calls started coming in. “People were excited, for sure,” Spiva added.
It’s not like Austin hasn’t had its fair share of TV shows filmed here (including but not limited to zombie smash Fear the Walking Dead, crime fighting reboot Walker, beloved high school football drama Friday Night Lights, Western family tale The Son, horror revival From Dusk Till Dawn, and most recently, Yellowstone spinoff 1923). And, honestly, people have usually been a lot cooler about it.
But before you say, “Oh, it’s just a commercial,” remember that advertising is arguably the true underpinning of the Austin production scene, bringing in millions of dollars and creating hundreds of jobs annually. With the Bear having spent 18 years creating commercials for nationally-recognized brands including Fruit of the Loom, American Express, Nike, Whataburger, Dell, and more, Spiva knows their value. “We’ve got great crews here and the commercials are a way to keep them employed.”
This article appears in February 7 • 2025.