Téa Leoni & Tim Daly on Why They Reunited for ‘Newlyweds’ After ‘Madam Secretary’

It’s not every day that spouses go to work together, but this isn’t Téa Leoni and Tim Daly‘s first rodeo in that regard as they gear up for NBC‘s new comedy Newlyweds.

After previously collaborating on CBS‘s former drama Madam Secretary, the performers and real-life loves are reuniting to play Jeanie and James, a free-spirited woman and a buttoned-up professor who embark on a whirlwind romance and marriage. But were they cast together to begin with? That was a question posed to the stars during NBC’s backlot presentation for the series on Monday (August 10).

“We were kind of sniffing around to play together again,” Leoni admitted. The star added, “We had a lot of fun on Madam Secretary, and I don’t know. The world got darker, and we wanted to get lighter. We sort of thought we’ve done this, this particular medium, and loved it, and we wanted to spend our days together.”

The sentiment was echoed by Daly, who said, “We spent six years pretending to be married on TV, and I would get to do it again, but we actually are married. It’s a miracle. It’s really fun. It’s cool, and we still like each other.”

NBC

The response garnered a silly reaction from Leoni, who questioned her partner with laughter, “It’s a miracle?”

“It is. It’s a miracle,” he declared. “It took 12 years, but we got there. We did,” Leoni added.

As for reacclimating themselves to the multi-camera comedy format, Daly revealed he was excited to get back into it. “I’m a theater kid, and I love doing plays, but that schedule… this gives you the experience of performing in front of live people and that special energy that’s created when — like, now, this room is full of strangers, but it’s also a lot more livable. So I just love being back here. It’s like coming home.”

The feeling was a little less fond for Leoni, who shared, “When I did Flying Blind and Naked Truth, they used to hang air‑sickness bags behind all of the sets.”

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“And now I just hold them for her,” Daly interjected to laughs.

“I used to hurl before I came out,” Leoni revealed. “In that time since I did that, I missed it, and I realized that I’m old enough, I’m tough, like, ‘I’m good, I can do this. This is fun. I want to, and it is so much fun.’ I can’t believe I used to vomit about it.”

See the real-life couple get big laughs when Newlyweds premieres on NBC, and let us know what you hope to see from the comedy when it arrives this fall.

Newlyweds, Series Premiere, Friday, October 23, 8:30/7:30c, NBC