NEED TO KNOW
Téa Leoni and Tim Daly play an opposites-attract couple in the new NBC sitcom Newlyweds, which premieres Friday, Oct. 23
Costar Jamie Lee Curtis, an executive producer on the series, recruited the couple shortly after their wedding last summer
Leoni and Daly say they hope the show encourages viewers of any age to embrace the possibility of love
For Téa Leoni and Tim Daly, the decision to reunite on screen couldn’t have been easier.
The real-life couple will star as free-spirit Jeanie and buttoned-up James in NBC’s sitcom Newlyweds, which premieres Friday, Oct. 23. The roles are vastly different from their prior turns as Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord and ethics professor Henry McCord in Madam Secretary (2014-2019), but Leoni says that’s exactly what attracted her and Daly to the new project.
“Madam Secretary hit at a [right] time. It was very relevant, it was very poignant,” Leoni tells PEOPLE. “At a certain point not too long ago, we were like, ‘Let’s make people laugh.’ That’s where we’re both from. We both love the sitcom medium.”
Tea Leoni as Jeanie and Tim Daly as James in ‘Newlyweds’
Credit: Nicole Weingart/NBC
Leoni, 60, and Daly, 70, both starred in popular sitcoms in the ’90s, with Leoni in The Naked Truth and Daly in Wings. Jamie Lee Curtis, who is an executive producer on Newlyweds, brought her fresh sitcom roles to the couple last summer.
“We’d just gotten married, and Jamie promised she was going to be a part of it,” says Leoni of signing on to the series, which also stars Emma Meisel, Ignacio Diaz-Silverio and Bill O’Neil. “It was a no-brainer.”
Leoni and Daly tied the knot in July 2025, more than a decade after first meeting on the set of Madam Secretary. They married in New York in a small, intimate ceremony, attended only by immediate family, Leoni’s rep confirmed to PEOPLE at the time.
Tim Daly and Tea Leoni attend the 101st Annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner at the Washington Hilton on April 25, 2015, in Washington, D.C
Credit: Kris Connor/FilmMagic
Now, the pair hopes that Newlyweds encourages viewers to go after romance in their own lives— no matter their age.
“I hope that James and Jeanie’s stupidity inspires lots of young people,” says Leoni. “Do it. Get out there! Say yes.”
Daly echoes his wife’s enthusiasm. “If you’re open to the possibility, then [love] has a good chance of finding you,” he says. “It takes just that little bit of willingness to embrace life, to realize that time is limited and to go out and give it a shot and see if love crashes into you.”
Newlyweds premieres Friday, Oct. 23, at 8:30 p.m. ET on NBC and streams the next day on Peacock.
Read the original article on People