Felicity Huffman Starring In Paramount+’s ‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’

Deadline claims that Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives, Otherhood) will guest star in Criminal Minds: Evolution‘s second season on Paramount+. She will portray Dr. Jill Gideon, a gifted biological psychiatrist and the ex-wife of Mandy Patinkin’s (Homeland, Alien Nation) Jason Gideon from the early seasons of Criminal Minds. 

The Hollywood Reporter reports that the Emmy-winning former Desperate Housewives star will be starring in her first major network series since her involvement in a college admissions scandal broke in 2019. Previously, Huffman was slated to star in an ABC spinoff of The Good Doctor, but the network decided against making the spinoff last year.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Huffman was sentenced to 14 days in jail, a $30,000 fine, and 250 hours of community service in 2019 after it was discovered that she had paid $15,000 to have her daughter’s SAT score manipulated. She previously expressed to NBC News that the incident has left her feeling “undying shame.”

Despite agreeing to assist the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit in looking into a murderous conspiracy theory, her character Jill is hesitant to rejoin the elite team of the bureau because of her complex past, according to Deadline. But she soon finds that her particular set of skills might be able to help them find yet another clue to the tricky Gold Star mystery.

During the years that Patinkin portrayed Gideon on Criminal Minds, viewers were never introduced to Gideon’s spouse. Patinkin left the CBS series after 47 episodes, with an UnSub killing off his character off-screen.

Criminal Minds: Evolution‘s series regulars include Ryan-James Hatanaka (Nancy Drew, Nurses) with Adam Rodriguez (CSI: Miami, Magic Mike), Paget Brewster (How I Met Your Mother, Community), Joe Mantegna (The Godfather Part III, Baby’s Day Out), A.J. Cook (The Virgin Suicides, Final Destination 2), Kirsten Vangsness (Pretty The Series, In My Sleep), Aisha Tyler (The Last Thing He Told Me, Fear The Walking Dead), and Zach Gilford (The Purge: Anarchy, Friday Night Lights). ABC Signature and CBS Studios are the producers.

The CBS series that aired from 2005 to 2020 is continued in Criminal Minds: Evolution, according to Deadline. During the premiere of its first season on Paramount+, the FBI’s most skilled team of criminal profilers faced their biggest challenge to date: an UnSub who utilized the pandemic to create a network of other serial killers. One murder at a time, the team’s mission was to track them down as the world reopened and the network began to function.