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Media Thread For Elsbeth


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Go to article link to watch behind-the-scenes video...

'Elsbeth' Goes Behind Bars and Into Musical Mode in Epic Behind-the-Scenes Look at Season 2 Finale [Exclusive]
By Chris McPherson   May 6, 2025
https://collider.com/elsbeth-season-2-finale-sneak-peek-bts/# 

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Elsbeth is about to wrap up its second season in style with the most ambitious hour of television it has attempted yet, and we bet you'd like to learn more about it. The episode, which is packed full of guest stars, features an epic musical number — and Collider is thrilled to present an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the making of it all! ....


Also, go to article link to watch another sneak peek video clip from the season finale...

Teddy Makes A Surprising Discovery In Elsbeth Season 2 Finale Sneak Peek [EXCLUSIVE]
By Rachel Foertach   May 6, 2025
https://screenrant.com/elsbeth-season-2-episode-20-clip/ 

Spoiler

In ScreenRant's sneak peek of season 2, episode 20, Teddy makes a surprising discovery about the Merton case. Dousant, the judge who put Elsbeth in jail, was originally assigned to the trial. However, he recused himself, allowing Crawford, Andy's murderer, to take over. With Kaya preparing for her undercover assignment, the team enlists the help of Ethan Slater's Officer Chandler to investigate Dousant's connection to Crawford and the Merton case.

Edited by tv echo
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(edited)

‘Elsbeth’ Boss Talks Kaya’s Shocking Promotion As Carra Patterson Pivots To Guest Star, Christine Baranski, & Musical Season Finale
By Rosy Cordero   May 1, 2025
https://deadline.com/2025/05/elsbeth-kaya-departure-explained-interview-carra-patterson-1236383471/ 

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DEADLINE: Speaking of judges, have we heard the last of Crawford? He may be dead, but the show is still talking about him.
JT: Yes, he’s dead, but he put some awful things in motion that could come back in Season 3. Even though he’s gone from this world, I think his legacy will remain in the story.

DEADLINE: Before you go, what can you tease about the upcoming musical finale? So many guest stars from prior episodes are coming back. What can you share?
JT: First of all, putting this together was scheduling Jenga, trying to get everyone’s schedule to work. [Laughs] It was always going to be a big swing, and we didn’t know if anybody would say yes. We asked a few people who were unable to join us because of their schedule. We figured we’d get maybe 5, but we ended up with 8 willing and able. I was writing the script in a way with slots of different, ‘Well, if we have this person, I could make it this way, if it were this person…’ And it actually worked out really well. We ended up with more women than men, which was good because Elsbeth is in the women’s wing in jail, and so mathematically, I was able to work it out.

The two hardest parts were the scheduling and waiting to be granted the rights to use the “Cell Block Tango.” We prepared as if they were going to say yes, and fortunately, in the end, they did, because we went a long way on a limb getting ready for it, and getting the number together. We built our own prison set that was a stage. And I think there was talk that people may want to take it over, that the owner of the stages might not take it down, so other people could shoot it. It’s such a great, great jail set.

Edited by tv echo
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Elsbeth Season-Finale Recap: It’s All About The Guest Stars
By Sophie Brookover   May 8, 2025
https://www.vulture.com/article/elsbeth-recap-season-2-episode-20.html

‘Elsbeth’ Finale: Carrie Preston & Jonathan Tolins Talk Kaya’s Exit, Season 3 Plans & Crawford’s Lasting Impact
Kelli Boyle   May 8, 2025
https://www.tvinsider.com/1190968/elsbeth-finale-season-2-kaya-leaving-carrie-preston-carra-patterson/

Carrie Preston Dishes on That Epic ‘Elsbeth’ Season Finale
Louis Peitzman   May 8 2025 1
https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/carrie-preston-dishes-on-that-epic-elsbeth-season-finale/

How Elsbeth pulled off season 2's glitzy musical finale
Carrie Preston and showrunner Jonathan Tolins walk us through the show's ambitious "Cell Block Tango" homage.
By Saloni Gajjar    May 9, 2025 
https://www.avclub.com/how-elsbeth-pulled-off-season-2-glitzy-musical-finale-interview

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Is FBI Officially Teasing Maggie/OA? Was Rehearsal the Weirdest? Criminal Minds Still Too Dark? Did Grosse Pointe Reveal Underwhelm? And More TV Qs!
By Vlada Gelman, Matt Webb Mitovich, Kimberly Roots, Dave Nemetz, Rebecca Luther, Ryan Schwartz, Nick Caruso, Charlie Mason, Claire Franken, Andy Swift   May 9, 2025
https://tvline.com/features/fbi-maggie-oa-romance-tease-season-7-episode-20-1235446683/ 

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24 | Elsbeth fans, were you disappointed that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend vet Donna Lynne Champlin didn’t get to sing in the finale? And did you love that Crawford’s judge friend was played by John Carroll Lynch, who also played Michael Emerson’s demonic lawyer on Evil?

 

Elsbeth’s Carrie Preston, EP Talk Finale’s ‘Crazy,’ Star-Studded Musical Number and Filling the Kaya Void
By Vlada Gelman   May 8, 2025
https://tvline.com/interviews/elsbeth-recap-season-2-finale-episode-20-kaya-leaves-1235443838/ 

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TVLINE | With the guest stars, how did you decide who to reach out to? Was it about reaching out to everyone to see who was available? Or did you seek out people who you knew had singing ability?
TOLINS |
We didn’t think about singing ability because I, basically, think everybody can sing. We cast a wide net just to find out who was even possible. We did try to lean toward people who we haven’t seen in a while. Like, we didn’t go to David Alan Grier or Billy Magnussen, people who were right before this episode because we wanted to get more of the sort of shock of, “Oh, my God, that person from Season 1 or early Season 2…” We did start putting together a story. How would this person bring their specific character and their skillset to the plotting of this story? We know we wanted Pupetta, Alyssa Milano, because of her mafia connections, that someone in her family had been imprisoned before. That was something that helped us unlock some of the story. So things like that, and we just kept chipping away at it. I did write an outline that included many scenes that were not shot, that was if this person were in it, this would be their part in the case. But ultimately, it worked out, mathematically, just about right, timing-wise.
*  *  *
TVLINE | I really loved seeing Donna Lynne Champlin from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend as the warden, but I was disappointed that she didn’t get to sing because she’s so great.
TOLINS |
I know, I know. Can’t have everything. I actually cast her because I loved her so much in The Perfect Couple as the cop, and she’s great in those kind of dry, working woman parts.
*  *  *
TVLINE | A guest star that I think fans responded to this season was Jordana Brewster’s character. Was there any thought about getting her back for this finale?
TOLINS |
We had trouble believing Chloe would do a day of jail because of who her clients are. [Preston laughs] It just didn’t seem like that was in the cards. But we did honor her by making her the key to the plot with Judge Dousant.

TVLINE | Will we see anybody move in to fill the void left by Kaya’s departure? Anybody going to become a series regular or a new character coming in?
TOLINS |
I’m just very adamant that I don’t want to just try to [be] like, “That’s the new Kaya.” I want to sort of organically respond and experiment and see how things develop and feel right. We certainly want Elsbeth to have meaningful relationships and friendships, but I don’t want it to be like we’re switching our Darrin Stephens on Bewitched, you know?

Edited by tv echo
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Elsbeth Burning Question: Will Angus Return Next Season? EP Says…
By Vlada Gelman   May 11, 2025
https://tvline.com/previews/elsbeth-season-3-angus-returning-ioan-gruffudd-1235446389/ 

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“I certainly hope so,” showrunner Jonathan Tolins tells TVLine, adding that he’s not surprised that the character and his dynamic with Elsbeth took off the way it did with viewers.

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‘Elsbeth’ Star Carrie Preston and EP Jonathan Tolins Breakdown The Showstopping Season 2 Finale: “We Were Scrambling Until The Very Last Minute” 
By Hope Sloop   May 12, 2025
https://decider.com/2025/05/12/elsbeth-carrie-preston-jonathan-tolins-interview/ 

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You guys definitely don’t shy away from Elsbeth or any of the other characters doing scary things, like going to prison and being confronted by a bunch of murderers she put away. How early into Season 2 did this idea come about?
TOLINS: Well, the idea originally started as an idea to do a murder story in a prison but she has to go into prison. Then we said, “Well, what if the prison were filled with people that she had sent there? I mean, that would be really fun.” And then we said, “Well, they should do ‘Cell Block Tango.'” But I did pitch it to CBS in my first meeting about this new season and everybody loved that idea. So that was always the goal. It wasn’t until very late in the season where we said, “Let’s go all the way. what if Elsbeth is put in prison?” And that’s when this happens. Which was a great way to up the stakes and go there in a surprising way… that was always the goal. We always thought that would be fun. No matter what, that will be fun. But it was such a nightmare, I wouldn’t say nightmare, but scary. Figuring out who could be in it, who’d be willing to be in it or available with their schedule and getting the rights to “Cell Block Tango,” all these things. We were scrambling until the very last minute and gambling. We were actually choreographing “Cell Block Tango” before we had the rights because it took quite a while to get answers from everybody. I still can’t believe it came together. It was a big swing, and I’m thrilled that we did.

It makes me think there could be a full-blown musical episode down the line. It feels very Elsbeth to hit her head and then we find out everything she thinks is in song. Would you do a musical episode?
TOLINS: Are you pitching right now? I’m truly open to it. I mean, the one thing I would say about us ever doing a full musical episode is that this was the perfect practice. We now know how much it takes in terms of pre-record and planning and all that. It’s hard when you’re doing episodes in eight or nine days. It’s a tough thing. And I think it would have to probably be a finale to do it.

I know you mentioned working out schedules was difficult for this one. Was there anyone from Season 1 or Season 2 who you wanted to pull in? Had you known from the start it would be Modarian (Stephen Moyer) who would get murdered?
TOLINS: We asked a lot of people and just schedule-wise, they weren’t able to do it. My first version of the outline had a whole bunch of scenes that depended on “Well, if it’s this character, then there’ll be this scene,” and figuring out how they would work in the plot. I mean, we knew early on that we wanted Alyssa Milano’s character because she had mafia ties, which would help us with the plot. We also tried to lean into using people who were from earlier, much earlier episodes, so not people we’d seen recently. In terms of Alex being the murder victim, we needed the other prisoners to be suspects, and Alex seemed like possibly the most killable because he was a womanizer and his murder, in some ways, had the least redeeming qualities because he killed this young acting student he was having an affair with just to keep his job at the school. And we could see the other, especially the other female characters being really pissed about that. So it gave them sort of believable motivations. We were nervous that Stephen wouldn’t be able to work it out with his schedule. But he worked it out early enough that we didn’t have to figure out, “Well, okay, if it’s not him as the victim, who else is it?” Yeah, we got very lucky.
*  *  *
Speaking of that sandbox, we’re coming back for Season 3. I’m sure you’re probably already working on it, anyone who might be heading to this playground?
TOLINS: We are not already working on it. I get a break of like three weeks. So we start, the writer’s room starts on May 19 and we start shooting in July. You know, everyone thinks that we sort of have the stars before we have the scripts and stuff. In almost every case, we come up with a story, we write a script and then go out to [actors who could work]. As the show’s gone on and word’s gotten out that people have a good experience doing our show, we do hear from agents like, “My client so-and-so really loves the show and would love to do one.” But you don’t know, there’s no way to know everybody’s schedule. What we really have to do is just write the best thing we can and know that that will attract the right people. And we’ve been incredibly lucky and pleased with who’s come. The one exception was that I had worked before with Matthew Broderick and I always knew I wanted him to do the show. And so once I could lock in his schedule, I pitched him a few different characters and we decided which would be best for him. I did write that knowing he was gonna do it, but that’s the only time I think we’ve known in advance. Maybe that’ll start happening. I’m available if anyone wants to call.

Well, I wanted to also ask about one of my favorite parts in the finale: Elsbeth’s inmate number is “24602.” And then I noticed everyone else is wearing their episode number.
TOLINS: Very good, well done.

Are there any other Easter eggs that fans of the show should be on the lookout for?
TOLINS: Everything in it is a callback, pretty much every item on the book cart is something from a previous episode.
*  *  *
TOLINS: There are also books by other murderers on the cart. I don’t know if you can see them that well. There are references to Chloe, who was Jordana Brewster’s character, Chef V (Pamela Adlon) makes a brief appearance in a flashback. There are callbacks to people, like even little things, where Margo says, “Elsbeth, I still love that name.” She had said on her episode a year ago, “Elsbeth, I love that that name,” which I think was a Retta ad-lib, but we just sort of call it back to that. It should be like a party for fans of the show.

Edited by tv echo
(edited)

Alyssa Milano, Michael Emerson, and every famous guest star that ‘Elsbeth’ is submitting for the 2025 Emmys
Marcus James Dixon    May 20, 2025 
https://www.goldderby.com/article/2025/alyssa-milano-michael-emerson-elsbeth-emmy-submissions/ 

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CBS will submit 25 performers from Elsbeth Season 2 for Emmy consideration, Gold Derby has learned.
*  *  *
Below is the list of Elsbeth's acting submissions for the 2025 Emmys. Note: These entries are being submitted by CBS; additional actors from the series may still choose to submit independently.

Drama Actress: Carrie Preston
Drama Supporting Actor: Wendell Pierce
Drama Supporting Actress: Carra Patterson
Drama Guest Actor: Christian Borle, Matthew Broderick, Dan Bucatinsky, Michael Emerson, David Alan Grier, Ioan Gruffudd, Nathan Lane, Eric McCormack, Alan Ruck
Drama Guest Actress: Pamela Adlon, Vanessa Bayer, Laura Benanti, Jordana Brewster, Meredith Holzman, Laurie Metcalf, Alyssa Milano, Brittany O’Grady, Mary-Louise Parker, Molly Price, Gloria Reuben, Tracey Ullman, Vanessa Williams

Edited by tv echo

Carrie Preston will be part of two panels at the 2025 ATX TV Festival in Austin, TX, on May 31...

ELSBETH
Saturday, May 31, 2025 12:15 PM CDT

https://atxtvfestival.eventive.org/schedule/681c631e314185da05a9dd80 

Ladies of the Law: Crime Dramas and the Women Who Run Them presented by Pluto TV
Saturday, May 31, 2025 2:00 PM CDT

https://atxtvfestival.eventive.org/schedule/680835410fc551d219b5396c 

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(edited)

Why ‘Elsbeth’ creators Robert and Michelle King still watch dailies. All of them
By Michelle King and Robert King   June 3, 2025 
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2025-06-03/elsbeth-robert-and-michelle-king-on-writing 

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Elsbeth was created as a deus ex machina.

Back in 2010, on “The Good Wife,” the writers kept painting our characters into corners, finding dilemmas they couldn’t escape, and then finding ways for them to do so.

Elsbeth Tascioni was such an escape.

We wanted Alicia Florrick, our lead, to have to rely on a character who was the exact opposite of her: a quirky and confused lawyer with no color sense who was intuitively brilliant. In other words, a female Columbo — someone Alicia didn’t know she needed until she arrived.

It was a character meant to last only three episodes. Then we met Carrie Preston.
*  *  *
The first scene we shot with Carrie was her introduction on the show. She entered Alicia’s apartment and got the better of a cop who underestimated her. The scene had no obvious comic beats. It had some character shading but not much more.

But one of the most valuable things a showrunner can do is to watch dailies. All of them. It’s the best way to see how an actor tweaks a character, plays with inflection, finds comedy in lines you never thought were funny.

That’s what we saw in Carrie.

The next episode we started writing toward those tweaks, finding the comic pauses she played up, never aiming straight toward a punchline, giving her an offbeat line or two, letting Carrie find the comedy.

Almost immediately, Carrie made the character her own, bringing in a sort of aw-shucks Midwestern sweetness. But also there was a cunning there. Elsbeth knew she was being underestimated by her foe and she wasn’t offended. She used it. And that goes to the core of what’s fun about Elsbeth. It’s never completely clear when her innocence is real or faux.
*  *  *
We still watch Carrie in dailies, 15 years on, and love the way she makes Elsbeth both sweet and cunning.

Edited by tv echo

ATX TV Festival 2025 Portrait Studio: Billy Bob Thornton, Carrie c****, Skye P. Marshall, Carrie Preston, Jon Hamm & More
By The Deadline Team
https://deadline.com/gallery/atx-tv-festival-2025-photo-studio/ 

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Deadline was on location at the 2025 ATX Television Festival that ran from May 29-June 1 in Austin, TX, capturing portrait photos of the top talent at this year’s gathering.

ATX_Day3_CarriePrestonJPG.jpg

Carrie Preston picks her favorite Elsbeth season 2 scenes
By Alamin Yohannes   June 6, 2025
https://ew.com/carrie-preston-favorite-elsbeth-season-2-standout-scenes-11741787 

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Here, she looks back on three standout moments from the CBS drama's second season.

  • A psychic knocks Elsbeth off her game
  • Elsbeth’s past sparks a confession
  • The one time Carrie Preston sparred with Matthew Broderick

Carrie Preston was a presenter at the Tony Awards last night - she and Tom Felton presented the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play (won by Kara Young, Purpose)...
HX6526DOQNB6ZDC6KFQL3HHLCA.jpg?auth=4592

(pic source)

Maybe she was scouting out possible future guest stars for Elsbeth! ;)

Edited by tv echo
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TV Talk: Stephen Moyer talks Pittsburgh, ‘Art Detectives,’ ‘Elsbeth’
Rob Owen   June 9, 2025
https://triblive.com/aande/movies-tv/tv-talk-stephen-moyer-talks-pittsburgh-art-detectives-elsbeth/ 

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Most recently, Moyer returned for the second season finale of “Elsbeth” after playing Alex Modarian, a villainous theater director, in the show’s pilot episode. Moyer said “Elsbeth” star Carrie Preston, who was a series regular with Moyer on “True Blood,” called him and asked him to play opposite her in the “Elsbeth” pilot.

“We were very close, and I adore her and I think she’s a genius,” Moyer said. “I basically said, ‘Look, I’ll come and do it,’ and she said, ‘Well, let me send (the script) to you.’ I said, ‘I don’t need to see it. I’ll do it 100% just to get to work with you.’ ”

Moyer said when asked at Comic Cons during the “True Blood” days which character he’d want to play other than Bill, he always chose Preston’s Arlene Fowler.

“I loved what Carrie did with that character, so it just gives you an idea of the esteem that I hold for her,” Moyer said. “We had a ball on that (‘Elsbeth’) pilot, an absolute ball.”

Even when filming the “Elsbeth” pilot, Moyer said he and Preston talked about the idea of Elsbeth visiting Alex in prison to get Moyer back on the show.

“They weren’t quite sure how they were going to do it,” Moyer said. “Like, would she come to him for acting lessons?”

In the recent season finale, Elsbeth ends up in prison, where she confronts several characters she previously sent to jail, including Alex, who winds up murdered. They shot all of Moyer’s scenes first because he was filming a new season of Netflix’s “The Night Agent” at the same time. Initially, Moyer’s schedule didn’t allow him to be available for the “Cell Block Tango” musical number in “Elsbeth” (from the Broadway musical “Chicago”).

“Then I looked at the schedule for ‘Elsbeth’ when it came through, and I had a day off on the day they were shooting the ‘Cell Block Tango’ (dream sequence),” Moyer recalled. “So I wrote to (‘Elsbeth’ showrunner) Jonathan Tolins, and I said, ‘I can be in that day if you want me to announce it, because obviously they’re singing the “Cell Block Tango” about my (deceased) character,’ so they wrote me in. I was very, very happy to get to make that part of the show happen.

Edited by tv echo
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19 hours ago, tv echo said:

Carrie Preston was a presenter at the Tony Awards last night - she and Tom Felton presented the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play (won by Kara Young, Purpose)...
HX6526DOQNB6ZDC6KFQL3HHLCA.jpg?auth=4592

(pic source)

Maybe she was scouting out possible future guest stars for Elsbeth! ;)

That - or, they were touting themselves to Carrie!  😄

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