Jennifer Love Hewitt Joins ‘9-1-1’ Cast for Season 2 at Fox

Jennifer Love Hewitt will join 9-1-1 season two, replacing the departed Connie Britton, who has already moved on to another show.

Hewitt will star as Maddie, the sister of fireighter Evan “Buck” Buckley (Oliver Stark), according to Deadline. She is hoping to start a new life as the new 911 operator.

9-1-1 was a surprise hit for Fox after its midseason debut in January. The show averaged 14.9 million total viewers across different platforms and was among the top three new shows for the network. Thanks to its early success, the show was picked up for a second season less than a week after its premiere.

Britton initially signed on to play the show’s first 911 operator for just one season, but the door is open for her to return in a guest role, reports The Hollywood Reporter. There are no plans in place for a return though, since the Nashville alum is already working on Bravo’s scripted anthology series Dirty John.

Fox said early Monday during its call with reporters that 9-1-1 will move from Wednesday to Monday nights. It will get extra exposure with a post-NFL football debut on Sunday, Sept. 23.

9-1-1 is a 20th Century Fox TV production with Ryan Murphy Television and Brad Falchuck Teley-Vision. Murphy, Falchuck and Tim Minear created the series and are executive producers. The series centers on the tense experiences of the police officers, paramedics and firefighters who respond to 911 calls. The cast also includes Angela Bassett, Peter Krause, Oliver Stark, Alisha Hinds, Kenneth Choi and Rockmond Dunbar.

“Connie and I are talking about her coming back. Connie had just come off Nashville, and she didn’t want to do another show right away,” Murphy told Deadline of possibly bringing Britton back. “I said, ‘Well, why don’t you just do a one year deal,’ so Connie has a one-year deal, and we all knew that going in. But the show has become such a success, successes are good, and Connie and I both realize that, so we’re talking about her coming back in some capacity to season two if we can make her deal work.”

This will be Hewitt’s first role in a movie or TV show since she left Criminal Minds in 2015 after a one-season stint. Before that, she appeared in episodes of Hot in Cleveland and headlined her own Lifetime series, The Client List. She also starred in CBS’ Ghost Whisperer for five seasons from 2005 to 2010 and in Fox’s Party of Five from 1995 to 1999. Her film credits include Heartbreakers, I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Truth About Love and Garfield.

As for Britton, she signed on to star in Dirty John in March. The show is based on the true crime podcasts and articles by The Los Angeles Times reporter Christopher Goffard and was guaranteed two seasons on Bravo.

In the first season, Britton will star as Debra Newell, a single mom whose marriage to John Meeham was filled with secrets, manipulation and denials.

Photo credit: CBS