Elsbeth Taps Michael Emerson for Recurring Role Opposite Real-Life Wife Carrie Preston

Elsbeth has retained Michael Emerson to square off against the series’ titular lawyer — who, coincidentally, just happens to be his real-life wife!

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Emerson is set to recur in Season 2 of CBS’ Good Wife spinoff opposite his significant other, Elsbeth leading lady Carrie Preston. The pair revealed the news themselves Sunday during a panel for the procedural at New York Comic Con.

Emerson will play Judge Milton Crawford, “a haughty, soft-spoken and bespectacled man from an old New England family of public servants who sees his place in the nation’s elite as a birthright,” according to his official character description. Described as “a foil” to Elsbeth, Emerson’s Judge Crawford will make his debut on Thursday, Dec. 12.

Emerson, who is arguably best known for playing Ben Linus on ABC’s Lost , a role that earned him an Emmy in 2009 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, is coming off of a four-season run on Paramount+’s Evil . Both Evil and Elsbeth hail from A-list showrunners Robert and Michelle King.

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In an interview with TVLine earlier this year, Preston discussed the possibility of Emerson joining her on Elsbeth . Asked what kind of character she envisioned him playing, she told us, “It would be fun to see him in a role that wasn’t [dark],” adding, “We would expect him to be the murderer, but what if he wasn’t? What if he was someone who was somehow connected to the precinct? That said, I think he’d be open to pretty much anything. He loves the show, and we’ve been talking about how fun it would be if he came on and did an episode or two.”

The two have worked together before, with Preston guest-starring on Person of Interest as Grace Hendricks opposite Emerson’s Harold Finch.

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