Spoilers ahead for the winter premiere of Elsbeth Season 3 on CBS, called "Ol' Man Liver" and available streaming now with a Paramount+ subscription.
Elsbeth is officially back in primetime in the 2026 TV schedule, and the first killer of the new year proved that the show definitely didn't lose its touch after going all-out for the hilariously twisted Christmas episode. Hamish Linklater guest-starred as Archer, a wealthy man so obsessed with his own health that he was willing to murder a fit young man to steal his liver.
Unfortunately for the biohacker, Elsbeth Tascioni was on the case, and he was on his way to prison by the end of the hour. It was a very funny way to start the second half of Season 3, so when I spoke with Carrie Preston about the physical comedy of "Ol' Man River," I also had to get her thoughts on Elsbeth switching from the drama to comedy categories on the awards circuit.
What Carrie Preston 'Can't Get Enough' Of On Elsbeth
"Ol' Man Liver" was the second time that Carrie Preston worked alongside Hamish Linklater while playing Elsbeth Tascioni, but since the actress shared that Elsbeth "scrapped the rule" from The Good Wife about guest stars not playing multiple characters, the Midnight Mass star was able to play somebody entirely new.
Archer's obsession with physical fitness extended to the leading lady after she agreed to try his regime and get closer to him, which meant Carrie Preston doing a lot of walking in place and jumping jacks in the office. Elsbeth wouldn't have cracked the case without taking this extra measure, but was it taxing for the actress to deliver that physicality across multiple takes? She shared:
Luckily, the crew knew that they couldn't make me do it a million times. We all needed to make sure that we knew what the shot was going to be so we didn't have to keep repeating it. It's a strenuous job, even if you're just standing there, because of the hours I work pretty much every day, and the hours can be upwards of 15 hours. And so luckily, Dan [Lawson], costume designer, made sure that I was in sneakers to protect me and stuff. And we worked with our stunt coordinator when we were doing the boxing and that kind of thing, just to make sure that I was being protected. [laughs]
Elsbeth wasn't terribly good at boxing with Archer, but that didn't mean a stunt coordinator wasn't involved to make sure it was safe (and looked good on camera). The leading lady giving credit to Dan Lawson was a nice addition, as the costume designer has also done everything from designing a Breakfast at Tiffany's Halloween gown to helping Michael Emerson distinguish his Elsbeth villain from the bad guy he played on Evil. The result was that Carrie Preston was able to indulge her fondness for physical comedy, as she told CinemaBlend:
But I love physical comedy. You would be shocked at how many things they don't keep in the edit that I just mess around with and do because I'm having fun, and I like to find fresh ways to make the audience laugh and take a bite out of the situation. So when I read a thing like that on the page, Elsbeth in a tutu dancing with six year olds, I'm like, 'Yes! Bring it on.' I cannot get enough. [laughs] And our crew has come to know this about me, and so they're ready to capture it with their brilliance, their camerawork, and it's a great team.
Preston's physical comedy stood out even more than usual in the winter premiere, as Hamish Linklater's Archer was more of a straight man to Elsbeth's shenanigans than some of the other murderers have been. That said, Linklater himself might have earned my biggest laugh of the episode.
Defeated by Elsbeth's monologue about how he'd been caught and would now be going to jail without his supplements and smoothies, he finally agreed to sample some frozen yogurt. Looking completely bereft, he took a heaping spoonful of fro yo on a comically small spoon, tasted it, and said:
Oh, damn it. That's so good.
I'm still not sure if any episode featuring a Good Wife actor as a new character will ever win my heart as much as Nathan Lane's turn as an opera lover driven to murder by poor theater etiquette, but Hamish Linklater's defeated reaction to the deliciousness of frozen yogurt is enough to rank "Ol' Man Liver" pretty high.
Elsbeth's celebratory "Yes!" when he admitted it, followed by him continuing to scarf down fro yo with a tiny spoon? Excellent way to start the new year, and a great reminder of why Carrie Preston is so happy that her show can now be considered among other TV comedies.
Elsbeth Is (Officially) A Comedy Now
Before Elsbeth premiered back in 2024, its status as a spinoff of The Good Wife and The Good Fight seemed like a sign that Carrie Preston's return as Elsbeth Tascioni would be a drama. There aren't many hour-long network TV comedies out there, and a show with plenty of murder could be lumped in with more serious shows.
Yet as the episodes went on, Elsbeth stopped seeming like a drama with a handful of jokes and more like a comedy with some dramatic storylines. So, while it was somewhat surprising in late 2025 when news broke that Elsbeth would be submitted for awards consideration in comedy categories rather than drama, the change also makes sense.
A show doesn't have to be 22 minutes (without commercial breaks) with a laugh track to be a comedy, after all. The result? Elsbeth scored its first two major nominations, with the Critics Choice Awards putting the project in the running for Best Comedy Series and Carrie Preston for Best Actress in a Comedy Series.
While the show didn't win in either category, it was a big accomplishment so soon after Elsbeth was officially acknowledged as a comedy rather than lumped in with hour-long dramas. When I asked Carrie Preston for her thoughts on getting those nominations once Elsbeth was categorized correctly, she shared:
It was great. I felt relieved because at the beginning, when we started shooting the series and I found out that we were in the drama category, I said, 'Oh, that's disappointing, because we definitely aren't going to be able to compete with the dramas, because our show is very light.' So eventually, CBS thankfully was able to petition, and did a lot of hard work to petition all of the different awards to get us switched over to comedy and they did it very successfully. The first award show to say yes gave us these nominations. So I felt relieved that, you know, something that I had hoped for and expressed desire for, and so much hard work had gone into, it paid off.
Apparently, a show switching categories isn't quite as simple as just checking a different box before awards season each year, but CBS put in the work for it. Perhaps it's no surprise that just a couple of months after those Critics Choice nominations, the network renewed Elsbeth for a fourth season. In fact, CBS has renewed all four of its Thursday night shows, and I wouldn't be surprised to see the lineup of Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage, Ghosts, Matlock, and Elsbeth sticking for the 2026-2027 TV schedule.
For now, though, American Horror Story vet Jeff Hiller is coming on board next as a murderous wigmaker, and the promo indicates that it might be a dangerous time for any blondes in the Elsbeth world. Take a look:
Jeff Hiller's hairy episode is called "All’s Hair," and will see a celebrity wigmaker murdered. There's no shortage of suspects for Elsbeth and Co. to consider, but sussing out the true killer will take some wig-tastic shenanigans and a little bit of mayhem at a drag brunch. Where else than Elsbeth?
Keep tuning in to CBS on Thursday nights at 10 p.m. ET for the newest episodes of Elsbeth Season 3, immediately following Matlock. You can also stream every episode so far on Paramount+. Interestingly, with Elsbeth now being categorized as a comedy, Matlock is the only Thursday night show on CBS to rank as a drama.
Of course, that has worked for Matlock, with Kathy Bates and SKye P. Marshall earning Critics Choice nominations for Best Actress in a Drama and Best Supporting Actress in a Drama for two years straight. All in all, the pairing of these two shows seems to be paying off for CBS.
