‘Lost’ villain Michael Emerson joins wife Carrie Preston’s ‘Elsbeth’ in recurring role

Actor Michael Emerson’s wife, Elsbeth star Carrie Preston, is his new costar.

The former star of TV’s Lost will join the CBS legal dramedy’s second season, which premiered Oct. 17, the network has announced.

He will portray Judge Milton Crawford, who’s described as “a foil” to Preston’s titular character. Crawford is “a haughty, soft-spoken and bespectacled man from an old New England family of public servants who sees his place in the nation’s elite as a birthright.” Audiences will see him for the first time on the Dec. 12 episode.

Meanwhile, Preston’s quirky Elsbeth Tascioni is on a mission to help the NYPD catch well-heeled criminals.

The character originated on The Good Wife, the Julianna Margulies-led show that aired from 2010 to 2016, and later appeared on another of its spinoffs, The Good Fight. Christine Baranski starred in that series for six seasons, which wrapped up in 2022.

Emerson has a long list of credentials in addition to his relationship to the show’s star. He has won Emmys for his work on Lost, where he played the villainous Ben Linus, and for a guest-starring role on The Practice.

His other credits include the movie Saw, as well as former TV series Person of Interest and Arrow.

He and Preston, who won her own Emmy for The Good Wife in 2013, married in 1998.

Just last month, she marked their anniversary with a post on social media: “26 years ago, we said I do. And we are still saying it every day. Happy anniversary to @officialmichaelemerson – my partner in all things life.”

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly’s free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.