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Meet the new Matlock. Kathy Bates stars as lawyer Madeline “Matty” Matlock in CBS’s reboot of the classic legal drama Matlock. 

Viewers got a sneak peek at the new show on Sunday, Sept. 22. The episode was the network’s most-watched, non-Super Bowl Sunday series launch since 2019, drawing an audience of 7.73 million, according to TVLine. But it will be a few weeks until we see Matlock again on CBS. The show won’t begin airing new episodes until mid-October. 

The next episode of ‘Matlock’ airs Oct. 17 on CBS

Young woman sitting in front of a tablet in 'Matlock' on CBS
Leah Lewis as Sarah in ‘Matlock’ Sonja Flemming/CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

While the Matlock series premiere aired on Sunday after 60 Minutes, that’s not its regular timeslot. Future episodes will air on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET starting on Oct. 17. (Also set to premiere that night are new seasons of Ghosts and Elsbeth, plus the new Young Sheldon spinoff Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage.)

In “Rome, in a Day,” Matty is settling into her new role at Jacobson Moore. Along with her colleagues Olympia (Skye P. Marshall), Billy (David Del Rio), and Sarah (Leah Lewis), she takes on a lawsuit involving a developmentally delayed teenager whose family claims he’s been wrongly accused of murder. Meanwhile, Olympia and her ex Julian (Jason Ritter) disagree on a parenting matter. 

Matlock Episode 2 will also stream live and on-demand for Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers, or on-demand the next day for Paramount+ Essential subscribers.

How to catch up on the ‘Matlock’ series premiere 

Miss out on the Matlock series premiere, or want to watch if again? The episode will air again on Thursday, Oct. 10 at 9 p.m. ET. 

The first episode of Matlock is also streaming on Paramount+. It’s also available to watch for free on CBS’s YouTube channel. 

Kathy Bates on why she returned to broadcast TV

Kathy Bates as Madeline ' Matty' Matlock peeking through a door
Kathy Bates in ‘Matlock’ | Brooke Palmer/CBS ©2023 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Kathy Bates Was Ready to Retire Before ‘Matlock’ Script

In Matlock, Bates’ character finagles her way into a job at a prestigious law firm after having been out of the workforce for years. Her reasons for doing so are deeply personal (read our breakdown of the premiere here), and that’s a big part of what drew the Oscar-winning actor to the show.  

“I never really thought I’d be doing broadcast TV again,” she told Parade. “When I first read it, before I got to the end of the script, I was going, ‘Oh, this is just another procedural, I don’t know if this is something that I’d be up for doing.’ And then, bang, all of a sudden, I saw what was underneath, and that really excited me.”

Bates also relates to her character’s sense of feeling invisible as an older woman. Despite starring roles in movies like Misery (for which she won her Oscar) and TV shows like American Horror Story, she says that she feels sometimes people don’t see her. She recalled a recent experience on the Paramount lot where a group of visitors on a tour didn’t recognize her.

“I thought they’d recognize me immediately when I was on my golf cart sailing by to go someplace,” she said. “I couldn’t even get their attention, you know? I’d be waving and they’d look right at me, and nobody would see who I was, and it got so frustrating. And I thought, ‘Well, maybe when this damn thing comes out they’ll know who I am again.’”

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