As if High Potential couldn’t get any better, season 2 of the hit ABC show will now include Steve Howey.
Multiple outlets confirmed on Thursday, June 26, that Howey, 47, has joined the crime drama as a series regular. He will play the precinct’s new captain, Jesse Wagner, who is described as “a savvy political animal who knows how to wear an expensive suit and oozes effortless charm.”
According to the official description, Jesse is “a guy who can launch a million fundraisers with his smile, he has disruptor tenacity and likes thinking outside the box just like their all-star consultant Morgan [Kaitlin Olson]. He has a way of putting himself right in the middle of the action … whether he’s wanted there or not.”
High Potential, which will return this fall, follows high-potential intellectual Morgan who teams up with the LAPD to help solve murders. She gets paired up with Karadec (Daniel Sunjata), who is initially skeptical about how Morgan can assist the Major Crimes unit but ultimately starts to rely on her.
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Howey became a household name playing Van on Reba from 2001 to 2007. He recently reunited with Reba McEntire and Melissa Peterman on their new NBC sitcom Happy’s Place, which is when he spoke exclusively to Us Weekly about his plans for the future.
“I haven’t done a sitcom in years. It’s been a long time since I got back on the horse and it wasn’t easy. It was a little bit hard because of the timing and the volume and the live studio audience. I was like, ‘This is no joke,’” Howey, who also starred on Shameless and True Lies, told Us in December 2024. “I got used to single camera. I got used to Shameless and then True Lies with a single camera. It’s a different vibe. I kind of got the juices flowing again and I was like, ‘I [need to] have my own sitcom. This is fun.’”
Howey’s new gig comes after his former Shameless costar Shanola Hampton told Us that she couldn’t wait for his new big role.
“Steve Howey needs a job, Hollywood. It’s not a joke. I am dead serious — hire him,” Hampton, 48, said in April. “He is everything that you would [think he is]. He’s hot, he’s talented and he’s funny. He has everything. He should have his own show.”
Hampton, who played Howey’s onscreen wife on the Showtime series, said she liked the idea of sharing the screen with Howey again.
“Let’s talk about my best friend Steve Howey. I might be a little biased but he’s hot, right? He’s got swag and he’s a manly man,” she continued. “[My Found character] Gabi needs someone that can be like, ‘Sit down and let me take the lead. I’m planning the date today.’ Any version of Steve Howey that I could get on [the since-canceled show Found], I’ll take because I would work with him for the rest of my life.”
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The executive producer and showrunner of High Potential, Todd Harthan, teased to Us in February how the show’s success would affect possible guest stars.
“Just the casting opportunities — not just for guest star roles — but recurring roles. We’ve never met Morgan’s mother and father either,” he noted while discussing season 2. “We haven’t met anybody.”
While discussing the casting possibilities, Harthan gave Olson, 49, a shout-out.
“Kaitlin is a magnet for talent. There’s a lot of people that go, ‘Oh, I get to act alongside her? That looks like a really good time.’ And they are right, It is,” he continued. “She’s a blast. But I hope you’re right [that there is actor interest in guest-starring on High Potential]. I want to see that list of people that want to come and dance with us.”
