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Jeanne Tripplehorn is set to join the cast of veteran CBS procedural Criminal Minds as a new regular next season. I hear her deal is for one year with an option for a second. Additionally, Tripplehorn has closed a deal with CBS and CBS TV Studios to develop a comedy project for her on an if-come basis. Coming off her five-year co-starring turn on the HBO drama Big Love, Tripplehorn tested the comedy series waters this past season with an arc on Fox’s New Girl.
On the ABC Studios/CBS TV Studios-produced Criminal Minds, Tripplehorn will play a new FBI profiler, with details about the character still being fleshed out by executive producer/showrunner Erica Messer. “We’re thrilled to have Jeanne Tripplehorn join our team as a profiler,” Messer said, adding that Tripplehorn’s character will be introduced in the season premiere. “It’s an exciting way to start season 8.”
On Criminal Minds, where I hear Tripplehorn will be pulling in a six-figure salary per episode, she will fill the void left by the departure of veteran Paget Brewster. Tripplehorn is the latest big-name actor added to a veteran CBS crime drama, following the castings of Laurence Fishburne, Ted Danson and Elisabeth Shue on CSI and Sela Ward on CSI: NY. Tripplehorn, repped by Gersh and Brillstein Entertainment, recently starred in the Lifetime anthology movie Five. Her previous TV movie role in HBO’s Grey Gardens earned her an Emmy nomination.
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This is fantastic news, I have to start watching criminal minds now
From brilliantly played role on a great show to typical CBS procedural. Well, at least she’s getting lots of money for that. She’s an excellent actress so I hope after that stint she’ll get a show worthy of her talents.
Are you kidding? You cannot insult Criminal Minds like that. This actress should feel so lucky that she gets to join this awesome cast. I know she cannot fill the large and spectacular shoes left by Paget but I wont judge. Criminal Minds is awesome, end of story.
Taylor I agree wholeheartedly. You are right on. I still hope Paget will come on at times. I still hope Hotch will realize Em is the one he should consider…..not Beth.
I am not impressed with Tripplehorn as an actress,she acts to me unemotinal like shes forced to be there.offer Paget a raise & bring her back she is great. (love criminal minds)
I agree with Jake. I only watch CM when other shows are on repeat but with this casting it will get a season pass
Good for her. She will bea huge asset on a 3rd rate show
3rd rate!?!?!?!?!!?!? Do you have eyes?? Or a brain for that matter?
Criminal Minds is not 3rd rate.
Third rate must be pretty damn good. The shows in it’s 8th season!
For a show that is consistently the most reprehensibly misogynist series on network TV, Criminal Minds certainly gets some impressive talent.
What a shame.
Do you even watch Criminal Minds, Sheldon? I’ve seen nothing reprehensible about it. Nor is it misogynistic. It would be nice if the female characters got better storylines, but since the great writer purge after season four, none of them have really gotten anything that great. The female characters on CM are some of the best I’ve seen on network television. They’re able to work together without catfights or snarky comments. They’re portrayed as actually being friends with each other. They are intelligent, strong and easily hold their own with the men.
That is a great get for the show and as a fan, very cool
Nothing against the actress, but we didn’t need a new character thrown in the mix, especially in the first episode. Most fans have been screaming that we don’t want a replacement, especially when the writers/showruiner (that’s not a misspelling) already made it seem like the team doesn’t need a media liaison and they’ve had an extra profiler since JJ became one and Prentiss came back. With her gone, they’re back to the usual number. Furthermore, the writers/showruiner weren’t doing a good job of giving balanced screen time to all of the cast last season, so we were hoping that having one less cast member would help the writers alleviate, or at least work on and make improvements in that area. Instead of worrying about filling the void for Prentiss, how about CBS/CM worry about filling the void for Reid first. Remember when he was a main character? This is NOT an exciting start to the season, it’s a disappointing one. But then again, since Erica Messer (showruiner) took over, we’ve been getting increasingly used to disappointment. The question now is, will I and the other fans who feel the way I do, even bother to watch?
I agree with not needing any new characters especially when they dropped the Ashley Seaver character. I don’t think season 7 was all disappointing as all shows have episodes that don’t live up to expectations sometimes. I do think there are enough profilers as to not need to add more, especially right at first. If there was someone who came in and did not intend to be with the team but somehow fell in place there, maybe, but I feel this is an opportunity to use more of the actors already cast. While I liked Emily Prentis, she was never my favorite character on the show and, for the last 2 years, it seems it was mostly about her and everyone else took a backseat.
AGREE AGREE AGREE.
I love Criminal Minds. Each year it gets better and better. I can’t wait to see what will happen this year. Keep up the good work and way to go Jeanne.
Yawn. I can see where CBS has the reputation for pulling in the older set. I can’t wait until they start recasting the Big Bang Theory with Shatner as Wolowitz and Betty White as Penny. I don’t mean for it sound like an age thing either. There are plenty of actresses in that age group that have less of a geriatric presence. Kyra Sedwick comes to mind. Hell, Betty White seems more youthful. I guess they don’t expect a large portion of the cast to resign for next season so the character is being set up to take over.
If CBS and Criminal Minds cared at all about attracting a younger audience to the show they’d focus more on Matthew Gray Gubler’s character Reid who was all but invisible in the second half of the last season. But that might anger the oldie fans.
Again, YAWN. Everybody talks about how great she was in stuff from 20 years ago or her rather matronly turn in Big Love. The younger audience IS disappearing which is also why viewership is eroding. The older set is not picking up the slack.
This is not good news at all…seems forced and out of place, not surprise by the news tho I rather they bring back Rachel Nichols at least she was some kind of eye candy. Jeanne is bland and boring as white wall paint on second thought maybe she is good fit for Criminal Minds! Fans went from having Brewster to tripplehorn major Downgrade.
Messer in a week from «I don’t want a new Prentiss» to «we’re thrilled to have Jeanne Tripplehorn join our team as a profiler». It’s the mediawork and social media representation from CBS Criminal Minds (Writers, showrunner, actors) which throws me away, honesty and being a part of a whole – is lacking as big as the grand canyon. And not Tripplehorn joining the cast – wish her good luck.
While I’m excited by a new character, I’m more concerned right now about Matthew Gray Gubler. Is there any word on how his contract negotiations are going? It’s getting down to the wire.
No. If he leaves I think I’ll quit watching. OK maybe not because this is the only show I can watch Shemar Moore but I would be extremely upset and maybe boycott for a month. But I do have some die hard Reid fanatic friends who would drop this show like those re-runs of Friends in a second. Reid needs to stay and given more of a story!
I was hoping they wouldn’t replace Paget… At least not from from the very first episode of season 8…
Anyway, I’m glad they didn’t pick yet another bright-eyed young actess. We didn’t need another Seaver character. At least, we know Jeanne’s character’s gonna be somehow experienced… So wait and see…
Agreed!
I’m a little excited and a little reserved though. I think this casting will be better than S6 because we’ll have a more experienced character. Don’t hate on last season. S7 was probably the best season of television I have seen in a long time. The perfect balance of humor and drama and romance. It was great.
Messer may be excited but many fans aren’t. I’ll watch three episodes. But if my favorites on the show are put on the back-burner to make room for a new “star” I’m done watching. The crappy Unsub heavy season 7 nearly did me in but I decided to give it one more chance. The show already had one profiler too many in JJ. They didn’t need a replacement. I hope CM doesn’t go further down the toilet a la Sela Ward on CSI NY.
‘Crappy unsub heavy’. I agree
I’ve learned the hard way to give people a chance. By having preset opinions/prejudices, I have missed out on some great movies, TV, and actors in the past, and have regretted it.
As for the folks who are complaining about the show’s existence in the first place: If you don’t like Criminal Minds, WHY are you even responding to this article? Surely you can find something more constructive to do…
Thumbs down.
I swear just past week Messer said she didn’t want to replace Paget. What the hell happened to that? I’m upset. Honestly I am definitely not watching next season. No offense to the actress but I don’t think someone should be added so soon.
I agree that there needs to be more Reid! I’ll watch the show until Matthew Gray Gubler decides to leave, but I’m just not sure I’m gonna love a new character. The cast is awesome like it is, although Paget will be missed, and I just hope that adding an unnecessary cast member doesn’t mess up a great show!
I’m for sure going to watch next season. I don’t know who this actress is and can’t recall watching anything she’s in… but lets see where this leads the show to. They should have kept Rachel Nichols though for this would have spared some changes.
Also, I had hoped to probably see a younger member joining the team as Jeanne Tripplehorn seems tobe rather old and the team is also getting older and older. Whatever kind of character she’s going to play – they better make sure she has some really, really unusual yet not chliché traits, otherwise I personally see the danger of the entire show getting a little monotonous.
She has brought ZERO to the show. She is as boring as boring can be. I’m VERY disappointed in the ‘character’, not in her ability or not to ‘act’. The character has NO personality. NO human traits when the rest of the team is FULL of them! We NEED to see something, and we are not. This worries me for the success of the show. SHE is going to BREAK IT!
Don’t listen to the sourpusses on here. Like any of them could do what you all do. They don’t have a clue how hard your jobs can be. All they have to do is sit back and watch 40 minutes a week and from the sound of it, most of them haven’t done that much and don’t know what they’re talking about.
I’ll agree that I’m not always happy with the way things go, but you can’t please all the people all the time. The cast, crew and show runner, Erica Messer, have done fabulous work fixing the season six debacle. I didn’t want a new agent either, but if it has to happen, they made a beautiful choice this time. So long as this newest member has a descent background and something to bring to the table, I’m okay with her seemingly too-soon introduction. A more experienced addition makes WAY more sense.
At any rate, I trust in our Criminal Minds team to go all King Midas with season eight! LOVE you guys! And congrats to the beautiful and talented Jeanne Triplehorn, best of luck to you!
I am more than willing to forget everything I didn’t like about last season and put all of my enthusiasm behind the writers if they would just cease and desist with that inane and dead-end Hotch/Beth storyline. Bellamy Young was poorly suited to CM. Jeanne Tripplehorn could add some real acting talent to an already stellar cast. For the first time in a long time, my hopes are high for Season 8.
I’m coming in after the show has been on for a while, and I just saw the last show in November last night. She is NOT growing as a character. There is NOTHING ‘human’ about her like there IS with the rest of the Team.
She’s NOT adding a thing! She a body with NO personality. She’s a brain, and that’s it. I’m VERY disappointed. I’ve watched this show since the beginning, and cannot WAIT for each week’s NEW episode! This season, NOT! She’s blown the Team. She adds NOTHING. She’s a stiff board.
This IS a BRILLIANT show, and I LOVE it! Every time I see her in a scene, my adrenaline goes down. She’s a downer to the show. CBS NEEDS to rewrite her character, or let her go.
I’m a VERY dedicated fan of this show, even watch ALL the reruns until I can’t stand them anymore! She has been the WORST CHOICE out of ANY OTHER CHARACTER, EVER!
Take her out and no one will even miss her! I’m serious.No one will even miss her, nor will they even remember her.
totally agree – have totally stopped watching new episodes – only watch reruns. can not stand tripplehorn. she needs to leave before she destroys my very favorite show.
I wish Paget all good things.Welcome Jeanne, looking forward to the new season.
DEAR GOD WHHHYYYYYY?!?! Did they not learn anything from the Seaver-debacle??? Stop trying to add new team members to fill the void left by exiting cast members & work on re-establishing the team dynamic. They’ve got plenty to work with with the current cast. I have absolutely ZERO interest in this new character. Honestly I might switch off this season despite loving the show since the very beginning.
While I hoped that they wouldn’t have added a new person to replace Prentiss, I hope that Tripplehorn will be better than Seaver was in season 6. I don’t really think that they need another profiler since JJ became one between season 6 and 7, but why don’t they bring in someone to be the media liason or if they do bring in someone else how about someone we already know that the team has worked with on a previous case like someone from a different department of the fbi.
I don’t see why replacing Prentiss is necessary now that JJ is a profiler. If you base it on how well that worked last time with Seaver, it won’t end well. I hope it blows up in their face. No one wants a new character.
DITTO!!!