Felicity Huffman Scores First TV Role After College Admissions Scandal

Felicity Huffman is making a comeback on TV after scoring a role on ABC's baseball comedy show following her stint in prison over the college admissions scandal in 2019.

Huffman will return to acting after landing a role in an untitled comedy inspired by Susan Savage, the real-life owner of the Triple-A baseball team the Sacramento River Cats. It will be Huffman's first project after the 2019 college admissions scandal, Deadline reported.

The half-hour ABC comedy will also star "The Peanut Butter Falcon" actor Zack Gottsagen. It will be written by Becky Hartman Edwards.

Aaron Kaplan approached Huffman for the project. He also tapped Hartman Edwards to write the script and Gottsagen to star alongside the Oscar-nominated actress. The project attracted multiple offers before it landed on ABC.

The funny and heartbreaking show will be about love, loss, family and Triple-A baseball. Huffman will star as the owner of the minor-league baseball team. She inherited the team after her husband passed away. Since her spouse loved the team, she would be forced to navigate her new normal with the help of her dysfunctional family, with Gottsagen playing as her eldest son, a baseball fan with Down syndrome.

The story will be about Huffman's character navigating grief, politics and the business of sports. Her character shows how one learns not just to adjust but to thrive amid personal struggles.

The Emmy winner has appeared on various shows on ABC. She previously led three shows on the network, including "Sports Night," "Desperate Housewives," and "American Crime."

Huffman’s recent project was when she co-starred with Ava DuVernay on Netflix's limited series "When They See Us." Aside from the award-winning show, Huffman's recent credits included Netflix's "The Otherhood" and the indie project "Tammy's Always Dying.”

In March, Huffman admitted that she paid $15,000 to boost her daughter Sofia Grace Macy's SAT exam. She was emotional when she explained that she requested, for legitimate medical reasons, extra time for Sofia Grace to take her exam because the teenager has been seeing a neuropsychologist since she was 8. Huffman made it clear that the neuropsychologist and her daughter were not involved in what she did and they had no knowledge of her actions.

"I am ashamed of the pain I have caused my daughter, my family, my friends, my colleagues and the educational community," Huffman said in a statement as quoted by NBC News.

"I want to apologize to them and, especially, I want to apologize to the students who work hard every day to get into college, and to their parents who make tremendous sacrifices to support their children and do so honestly.”

The actress pleaded guilty to fraud charges in May 2019 and was sentenced to 14 days in prison in September of the same year. She was released from prison in October 2019 after just 11 days. She also subsequently completed 250 hours of community service and was allowed to get her passport back from the U.S. Probation and Pre-Trial Services Department last October after finishing supervised release, Us Weekly reported.