Carol's Second Act

 is an American sitcom television series created by Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins that ran from September 26, 2019 until March 12, 2020 on CBS.

Premise
After raising her two children, getting a divorce and retiring from teaching, Carol Kenney decides to embark on a unique second act: pursuing her dream of becoming a doctor. At age 50, she begins her internship at Loyola Memorial Hospital, where she must sink or swim with peers who are half her age. However, it's her enthusiasm, perspective and yes, even her age, that may be exactly what will make her second act a great success.

Cast

 * Patricia Heaton as Carol Kenney
 * Kyle MacLachlan as Dr. Stephen Frost, the Senior Attending Physician on the ward and Department Chair
 * Ashley Tisdale as Jenny Kenney, Carol's daughter
 * Ito Aghayere as Dr. Maya Jacobs, the Chief Resident in charge of Carol and the other three interns.
 * Jean-Luc Bilodeau as Daniel Kutcher, one of the members of Carol's group of interns.
 * Sabrina Jalees as Lexie Gilani, another member of Carol's group of interns.
 * Lucas Neff as Caleb Sommers, another member of Carol's group of interns.
 * Cedric Yarbrough as Nurse Dennis

Episodes
Main Article: Episode Guide

Development
On January 28, 2019, it was announced that CBS had given the production a pilot order. The pilot was written by Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins, who executive produces alongside with Heaton, Aaron Kaplan and David Hunt. Production companies involved with the pilot include FourBoys Entertainment, Kapital Entertainment and CBS Television Studios.

On February 12, 2019, it was announced that Pamela Fryman would direct the pilot.

On May 6, 2019, it was announced that the production had been given a series order, and a day after that, it was announced that the series would premiere in the fall 2019 season and air on Thursday nights at 9:30 PM. The series was debuted on September 26, 2019.

On October 22, 2019, the series received a back order for an additional five episodes, bringing season one up to eighteen episodes.

Casting
In March 2019, it was announced that Bonnie Dennison, Ito Aghayere, Kyle MacLachlan and Jean-Luc Bilodeau had been cast in the pilot's lead roles, with Dennison as Jenny, Ito Aghayere as Dr. Maya, Kyle MacLachlan as Dr. Frost and Jean-Luc Bilodeau as Daniel.

On June 7, 2019, it was announced that Ashley Tisdale had replaced Dennison in the role of Jenny. On November 5, 2019, Cedric Yarbrough was cast as Nurse Dennis and was promoted to series regular.

Carol's Second Act marks Patricia Heaton's first return to CBS since 2005, when Everybody Loves Raymond ended its run after nine seasons on the air. Her subsequent series, ABC's The Middle, matched Raymond with its own nine-season run, which lasted from 2009 until 2018.

Release
On May 16, 2019, CBS released the first trailer for the series. The series premiered on September 26, 2019.

On May 6, 2020, it was announced that Carol's Second Act had been canceled and would not be returning for a second season.

Critical response
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 58% approval rating with an average rating of 5.63/10, based on 12 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "While Carol's Second Act earns high marks for bringing Patricia Heaton front and center, awkward plotting and lackluster jokes hold it back from living up to its star's high standards." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 61 out of 100 based on 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".