Julianna Margulies Returns to TV with "The Good Wife"

After the well-publicized Elliot Spitzer and Mark Sanford scandals, we have "The Good Wife" which shows Chris Noth, an Illinois state's attorney, facing jail time after being implicated in a prostitution and corruption scandal. When this happens to a real-life politician, he always holds a large press conference, with his wife by his side. The press, especially recently, has taken to ask why the wife would degrade herself by standing by her cheating husband's side.

"The Good Wife" explores this previously uncharted territory, focusing on how the wife deals with life after the big revelation. This show marks Julianna Margulies's return to TV after the short-lived "Canterbury's Law". She plays Alicia, the wife of the disgraced politician, as she moves on with her life by going back to work as a lawyer, and providing for her two teenaged daughters. The show explores what happens beyond the initial shock of a public debacle, and follows Alicia as she tries to re-build her life.

"[Telling Alicia's story] seemed much less certain, much more interesting," the producer, Robert King, says, "because how do you really remake your life when everybody seems to have an opinion about how you should remake your life?"

The show premieres tonight at 10/9c on CBS. In the promos, we see Margulies slap Chris Noth with much gusto. The Emmy Award-winning actress (for her role on ER), reports that there are no camera tricks to that pivotal scene- she really slugged him.

"There was no other way to do it," she said. "And Chris Noth is so great. He's like, 'Oh please, I've been hit so many times.'"