EXCLUSIVE: Tèa Leoni is returning to broadcast — and multi-camera comedy — with a starring role in NBC‘s pilot Newlyweds, co-created by Gail Lerner and Jamie Lee Curtis. Landing Leoni, who had multiple pilot offers, firmed up Newlyweds‘ green light, which had been cast-contingent, clearing the project for production.
Written by Lerner, Newlyweds is a later-in-life love story about a free-spirited woman, Jeanie (Leoni), and a buttoned-up professor who marry impetuously after a whirlwind courtship.
Lerner and Curtis executive produce alongside Eric Tannenbaum, Kim Tannenbaum, Scott Schwartz and Lionsgate Television. Leoni is a producer. Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, is the studio.
As Deadline reported, the project was once set up at Netflix with Curtis attached to star as the female lead. She is expected to take on a supporting/guest role in the NBC incarnation.
After a stint as the female lead on the short-lived Fox sitcom Flying Blind, Leoni headlined her own multi-camera comedy series, the 1995 The Naked Truth, which ran for three seasons, one on ABC and two on NBC.
Leoni went on to star in the CBS drama series Madam Secretary, which aired for six seasons. Since returning to acting a couple of years ago following a break, she did a season-long arc on the most recent fifth season of Hulu’s Only Murders In the Building after first appearing in the Season 4 finale.
Newlyweds marks Leoni’s first multi-camera comedy since The Naked Truth. It is one of two multi-cam pilots at NBC this season, along with an untitled Kari Lizer project starring Katey Sagal and Jane Lynch.
Leoni, also recently seen opposite Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega in the film Death of a Unicorn, which premiered at the 2025 SXSW, is repped by Gersh and attorney Peter Nelson.