The Starter Wife (miniseries)

Characters

• Molly Kagan is a 41-year-old wife and mother of five-year-old daughter Jaden. Soon after the characters are introduced, she is abandoned by her husband and is forced to rebuild her life and assert herself within the film community, most of which ignores her after the split.
• Joan McAllister is Molly's oldest friend and an alcoholic socialite who lends Molly her beachfront Malibu home when she pretends to jet off to Paris but actually enters a rehab center in Ojai. She later calls upon Molly to impersonate her non-existent sister "Bambi", upon whom she has placed all blame for her failings, when her therapist insists the two confront each other and work out their hostilities.
• Cricket Stewart is one of Molly's friends whose allegiance to her is tested when her film director husband, a business associate of Kenny's, demands she break all ties with her. When she discovers him in a compromising situation with their children's nanny, she orders him to leave the house and reconnects with Molly. She later takes him back but has difficulty forgetting the image of her husband with the nanny. After she discovers she is pregnant she tells Molly that she has finally found the image to replace the one of her husband cheating.
• Rodney Evans, one of Molly's best friends, is a gay interior decorator suffering a financial setback.
• Kenny Kagan is Molly's soon-to-be ex-husband and President of Production at Durango Pictures. He leaves Molly for a woman half his age and aims to replace the current CEO of the company.
• Sam Knight is a homeless beach bum who saves Molly from drowning. He openly scorns her as superficial but the two eventually become involved in a romantic relationship. It is later revealed he spent five years in prison for involuntary manslaughter after his best friend was killed in a car crash caused by Sam's DUI.
• Lou Manahan is the head of Durango Pictures. He fakes his suicide by drowning to start anew, yet cannot help but attend his memorial service to see how his friends and colleagues react to his death.
• Lavender is the security guard at the entrance to the gated community where Joan lives. Molly takes her and her grandmother under her wing when they are evicted from their apartment for having a dog.
• Shoshanna is a young pop music singer who becomes involved with Kenny. It is revealed she was only using him to advance her career and she dumps him when he is fired from his job.

  Nielsen Ratings by episode

International broadcasting