Based on Tanya Biank's '06 book Under the Sabres: The Unwritten Code of Military Marriage, Wives revolves around a diverse group of women - and one man - living with their spouses and families on a bustling Army base.
Costars include sultry JAG alum Catherine Bell, Brigid Brannagh (CSI), and newcomer Sally Pressman, formerly a professional ballerina. Mark Gordon (Grey's Anatomy) is executive producer.
After four episodes, Wives (at 10 p.m. Sundays) averages 3.6 million total viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. That's an increase of 173 percent over the time slot's previous occupant, Blood Ties.
Delaney, 47, plays matriarch Claudia Joy Holden, no-nonsense wife of Col. Michael Holden (Brian McNamara). Widely respected on the base, she is the show's moral center.
"There's a fine line between her morals and the Army's," Delaney says. "She stays steady, no matter what happens. I think I need my own Claudia Joy Holden."
No joke.
In '02, Delaney was arrested for DUI. Three years later, she lost custody of her only child, Jack, now 17, after he testified in a Santa Monica, Calif., court that her drinking endangered his life.
Also in '05, her brother John died from a massive heart attack while playing basketball with the Delaney clan at their parents' home in Ventnor, N.J. He was 47.
It seems that the actress' luck is finally turning.
Jack, now a high school senior and captain of the varsity basketball team, has toured Penn and Villanova and recently attended a Penn basketball camp.
And on the professional front, Wives is tearing up cable. Even Delaney says she's surprised.
"I knew it was good work, but you never know what people are going to watch. Everywhere I go - the shoe store, the eye doctor - everybody's talking about it. They're already hooked. Forget about it."
