Desperate Housewives’ Felicity Huffman Opens Up About Returning To Network Television And Her ‘Certainly Rare’ Comeback

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For years, Felicity Huffman was a prominent star on television, playing a leading role in Desperate Housewives, which aired on ABC for eight seasons and 180 episodes between 2004 and 2012. Now, over a decade after finishing her role as Lynette Scavo, Huffman is preparing for her first regular role on a network TV series since Desperate Housewives. Her new character in Doc, scheduled for 2025, appears to be quite a departure from the character of Lynette.

The actress will first appear as a series regular on September 30th, in the second episode of Season 2 of Doc. This follows a premiere episode involving a hostage situation which may have temporarily resolved the show’s main romantic storyline. She’s been a series regular on multiple shows since Desperate Housewives ended, including USA’s American Crime, and has also made guest appearances on shows like The Good Doctor and Accused. However, Doc marks her first regular role on a network television show since 2012.

In a recent interview with Deadline before the premiere of her Doc series, Felicity Huffman shared her thoughts on the increased number of episodes in the second season:

Getting a score of 22 is quite unusual, but it simply gives you 22 opportunities to refine your approach, practice a bit more, identify your mistakes, and figure out how to get better.

Huffman has a good understanding of how long TV seasons should be – especially those with 20 or more episodes. With the exception of the fourth season, which was cut short due to the 2007-2008 WGA writers strike, every season of Desperate Housewives had at least 23 episodes. It’s less common to see shows with so many episodes today than when she played Lynette on ABC, and even Doc only premiered with ten episodes in its first season. (You can currently watch that first season if you have a Netflix subscription.)

Her latest character is completely different from Lynette, much like Doc feels distinct from Desperate Housewives. Felicity Huffman portrays Dr. Joan Ridley, the new head of internal medicine at Westside, taking over from Dr. Richard Miller after he was revealed to be a villain at the end of Season 1. Dr. Ridley previously mentored Amy, who might really need her guidance as she tries to recover her lost memories from the car accident and traumatic brain injury in Season 2. Huffman shared some insights into what viewers can anticipate from her character:

She immediately recognized Amy’s potential, seeing her as the leading expert in her field – a bit like David Beckham is in soccer. She really wanted to support and promote Amy’s career, and they’ve been close friends and coworkers for years. When the position of chief of internal medicine opened up at Westside hospital, Amy took on the challengebecause she was determined to make that hospital a top institution, either within the state, nationally, or even globally.

I’m really interested to see how Joan and Amy’s relationship plays out, especially since Joan wasn’t featured at all in Season 1 even though they’ve been described as “friends and colleagues for a long time.” Amy could benefit from having someone unbiased come in, someone who isn’t involved in the romantic drama. However, that might depend on how close Amy and Joan were – if they were good friends, Joan might also know Michael. Here’s a first look at the new character:

You can now watch Felicity Huffman return to network television in Season 2 of Doc! New episodes air on Fox Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET, right after new episodes of Season 2 of Murder in a Small Town. If you miss it, you can stream the latest episodes on Hulu the next day. Plus, the entire first season of Doc is currently available to stream exclusively on Netflix.

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2025-09-30 10:08