'The Good Fight' to air on CBS
Christine Baranski plays attorney Diane Lockhart in the CBS All Access series "The Good Fight." Credit: CBS / Elizabeth Fisher
"The Good Fight" is finally coming to CBS. In a move that might boost the show's Emmy chances and almost certainly its visibility. CBS announced Wednesday that the first season of the CBS All Access streaming series — a spinoff of "The Good Wife" — will have a "special event" broadcast run on the network beginning June 16.
“We’re excited to provide our network audience the opportunity to catch up with characters they first fell in love with on ‘The Good Wife,’ as well as introduce new viewers to this outstanding, critically acclaimed drama,” said CBS chief of entertainment Kelly Kahl in a statement.
Not quite all the characters, by the way: Citing a pay dispute, Julianna Margulies, the "good wife" herself, has publicly declined an offer to join as part of an arc. Nevertheless, "The Good Fight" has attracted a fiercely devoted audience at All Access, perhaps the only such audience for an All Access series so far. It's critically adored, and the Emmys have in fact paid attention, albeit scarcely (just two nods for the first two seasons). That could soon change.
"The Good Fight" inaugurated All Access back in February of 2017, but — like "Star Trek Discovery," which premiered later that September — the launch episode first aired on the main network, while the back nine streamed on the then-new service.
Unlike "Discovery," which was plagued with production problems long before launch, "The Good Fight" had a particularly smooth entry. The progeny of "Wife" creators Robert and Michelle King — with a major assist from veteran director Phil Alden Robinson (a Long Beach native, by the way) — "The Good Fight" knew exactly what it was from the beginning.
Or to be more precise, it was attorney Diane Lockhart's (Christine Baranski) show, alongside her new law firm partner and goddaughter Maia Rindell (Rose Leslie), and her other new law partner, Lucca Quinn (Cush Jumbo).
To boost visibility, and that Emmy run, CBS announced a somewhat complicated schedule shift: The first two episodes of season 1 will air at 9 p.m. starting June 16, then the next two the following Sunday, June 23. Per CBS, that means they'll fall within "the Emmy voting nomination window that closes on June 24."
Beginning Sunday, June 30, the drama will move to 10 p.m. for episode five and will remain in that time period until the 10-episode season concludes on Sunday, Aug. 4.
