The same day that CBS announced their fall schedule at CBS upfronts, the network ordered a new show to series that will air on its streaming site. According to Variety, The Good Wife, which just ended its seven-season run on the network on May 8, will officially have its spinoff. Christine Baranski and Cush Jumbo, who played Diane Lockhart and Lucca Quinn, respectively, will reprise their roles in the spinoff.
Rumors of the spinoff started to swirl shortly after the finale aired and picked up steam when Baranski started negotiations with CBS just a week ago.
Most of the producers of The Good Wife are expected to work on the spinoff, including David Zucker and Ridley Scott. Robert and Michelle King, the creators and showrunners of The Good Wife, will return as executive producers of the spinoff but aren’t expected to be showrunners this time around.
According to E! Online, the events of the spinoff will take place a year after what happened in the final episode.
When the finale of The Good Wife aired on May 8, the episode was watched by 10.62 million viewers and garnered a 1.3 rating, according to TV by the Numbers.
Baranski played Diane Lockhart on The Good Wife since the show started in 2009. She was a name partner at the law firm that Alicia Florrick (Juliana Margulies) started at after her husband, Peter (Chris Noth), was sent to jail. Her character left the firm at the beginning of season six, when she joined Alicia and Cary Argos’ firm.
For her role as Diane Lockhart, Baranski has been nominated for an Emmy from 2010 through 2014.
Baranski simultaneously portrayed Beverly Hofstadter, Leonard’s mother, on The Big Bang Theory, where she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy in 2009, 2010 and 2015.
Baranski won an Emmy in 1995 for her role in Cybil and she won two Tony Awards in 1984 and 1989, making her halfway to the prestigious EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony).
Jumbo played Lucca Quinn for the last season of The Good Wife. She started out as a bar attorney that Alicia quickly took notice of, eventually starting a firm with her. Eventually, the two end up joining Diane and they formed Lockhart, Florrick and Associates, resulting in yet another name change for the firm.
A release date and a title have yet to be announced by CBS, but the show will stream exclusively on CBS All Access. The Good Wife spinoff will officially be the second original show that will appear on the service, the first of which being the rebooted Star Trek. CBS Chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves has previously said he wants to add three to four original series on the streaming service each year. CBS All Access costs six dollars per month.