Why Kathy Bates Calls ‘Matlock’s Critics Choice Win ‘a Big Deal’ for Network TV

Dan Clarendon February 8, 2025, 10:49 am

Kathy Bates at the 2025 Critics Choice Awards on February 7, 2025 — Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

After landing the Best Actress in a Drama Series trophy at the 2025 Critics Choice Awards for her performance on CBS’ Matlock, Kathy Bates said her win is also a win for network television.

“It’s a big deal for me,” she told reporters backstage at the awards show on Friday, per Deadline. “When we did our pilot, I got an email from Amy Reisenbach, who is the head of the network, and I looked her up because I didn’t really know who she was, and I saw a picture of her … next to a headline that said, ‘Broadcast TV Is Not Dead.’”

Bates was likely referring to media coverage about a memo Reisenbach sent to staffers after becoming president of CBS Entertainment in November 2022. “I can’t wait to work with all of you much more closely and continue the legacy that is CBS,” Reisenbach wrote in the memo, per Variety. “In the meantime, I want to let you in on my mantra. Despite what you may have read or heard, BROADCAST IS NOT DEAD. This season proves it! Our network has 16 of the top 25 entertainment shows, and they are killing it on Paramount+, too! As we navigate the future, we are going to be smart and ambitious. And above all, we will keep entertaining millions of people around the world with best-in-class content. Surrender is not in my vocabulary.”

On Friday, Bates added, “This really is an award for [the network] for taking the opportunity to need to create such a wonderful show. I mean, it’s just been phenomenal.”

Kathy Bates as Matty in 'Matlock' Season 1 Episode 3 - 'A Guy Named Greg'

Sonja Flemming/CBS

On Matlock, Bates plays Madeline Kingston, a wealthy woman posing as a financially-challenged lawyer named Madeline “Matty” Matlock as she returns to her law career to get justice for the opioid-related death of her daughter. Skye P. Marshall, Jason Ritter, Beau Bridges, David Del Rio, Leah Lewis, and Sam Anderson also star in the series, a meta reboot of the Andy Griffith legal drama of the same name.

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CBS ordered a second season in October 202 — granting Matlock the first renewal of a freshman series of the 2024–2025 broadcast TV season — after the show gave CBS its most-watched non-Super Bowl series premiere in five years, with an average of 7.73 million viewers.

“This reconceived Matlock was devised by Jennie Snyder Urman with a brilliant surprise plot twist, and we knew we had something very special the moment we saw the first episode brought to life by the incredibly talented Kathy Bates,” Reisenbach said in a statement at the time. “The audience reception and critical acclaim for it has been overwhelming. We can’t wait to get started on a second season.”

Matlock, Thursdays, 9/8c, CBS