Jennifer Love Hewitt makes a '9-1-1' call as the 'Party of Five' star reunites with Fox

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – When Jennifer Love Hewitt joins the cast of Fox's "9-1-1" this fall, it brings her back to the network that established her with "Party of Five" in the 1990s.

"I'm really excited to be back at Fox. It's been part of what has made this so heartwarming. Fox really started my career with 'Party of Five,'" Hewitt said Thursday at the Television Critics Association summer press tour.

She replaces Connie Britton on "9-1-1," the Ryan Murphy drama that stars Angela Bassett and Peter Krause and focuses on the work and lives of first responders – firefighter, police and 911 operators – in Los Angeles.  The show was Fox's biggest new hit.

Hewitt said her character, Maddie, the sister of firefighter Buck (Oliver Stark) will evolve into a 911 operator, which was the job of Britton's character. There are no plans for Britton to be back – she signed a one-year deal and is now working on Bravo's "Dirty John" – but "the side door is always open for Connie's return," executive producer Tim Minear said.

Maddie "has had a little bit of a tough time in her life in a sort of abusive relationship. She comes to her brother pretty broken and needing to start over and needing a place to figure out who she is," Hewitt said. "She was a nurse before and through (Buck's) guidance and brilliance (she) becomes a 911 operator and is able to help people but stay in a safe place given her situation."

Hewitt, who starred in "The Ghost Whisperer" and also appeared on CBS drama "Criminal Minds" in the 2014-15 season, says ensemble shows are more appealing now that she's married and has two children.

"It's nice not to have it all on your shoulders. I (can) be a mom first," she said.

Hewitt reminisced about "Party of Five," where her character, Sarah Reeves, was the girlfriend of Scott Wolf's Bailey Salinger, and "Time of Your Life," the short-lived spinoff that focused on Sarah's character and also featured Jennifer Garner and Pauley Perrette ("NCIS").

"I was only supposed to be on nine episodes of 'Party of Five' and people really responded well and I got to be on for pretty much the life of the series," she said. "When they came and said, 'We're going to do a spinoff of Sarah in New York,' I was like, 'Are you sure about that?' … We did it and it was a beautiful show."

However, the series "didn't quite touch with the audience the way we hoped. I think that was because Sarah and Bailey on 'Party of Five' were really what made Sarah special to the audience, the two of them together. When he wasn't able to be on the show, it just didn't go the way we planned."

WSBTV