Téa Leoni returns to TV in NBC sitcom Newlyweds with Tim Daly
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The gist
Actor Téa Leoni returns to television in NBC's Newlyweds, premiering Friday, October 23, opposite her real-life spouse Tim Daly.
The sitcom reunites the Madam Secretary pair, but a Los Angeles Times review calls the show a work in progress.
Background
Téa Leoni is an actor whose last TV role was as the first female US president across six seasons of CBS's Madam Secretary, where she starred opposite Tim Daly, her real-life spouse. Seven years later the pair reunite onscreen in NBC's Newlyweds, a comedy about people in their sixties and early seventies who marry on a whim, co-created by and starring Oscar-winner Jamie Lee Curtis. Curtis has said the idea came from a chance encounter with a limo driver in New York who mentioned his new wife. The show is drawing attention as Leoni's return to network comedy and as a reunion of the Madam Secretary couple.
How it unfolded
- Oct 20, 2026Newsweek's The Parting Shot episode features Jamie Lee Curtis, Téa Leoni and Tim Daly discussing NBC's Newlyweds.
- Oct 21, 2026TV Insider interviews Leoni, Daly and Curtis about returning to TV comedy; the Newlyweds premiere is listed as Friday, October 23, 8:30/7:30c on NBC.
- Oct 22, 2026NBC New York's Sara Gore sits down with Téa Leoni to talk about the new comedy series.
- Oct 22, 2026The Los Angeles Times publishes Robert Lloyd's review of Newlyweds.
Who’s saying what
- Analysts
- Los Angeles Times critic Robert Lloyd writes that the show is "still a work in progress" and "for the moment, at least, has the quality of an emu attempting to fly," while calling Leoni "typically alive and original."
- Party
- Tim Daly says the show is "about people of a certain age who are willing to take a chance on love and to go into it blindly."
- Party
- Leoni says "the sitcom is an incredibly safe space, but we're interacting, and it is so much fun," and credits Lucille Ball as the reason she is in comedy.