Variety reports that "Diaries" will be broadcast Wednesday evenings at 9 PM ET beginning March 22; check local listings. According to tv.com, McDonald plays Professor Carla Bonatella in the new series, which also features Ernest Waddell, Victoria Cartagena, Corri English, Peter Gerety, Tiffany DuPont, Milo Ventimiglia, Penn Badgley and Matthew Modine. "Diaries" marks the second television series for theatre regular McDonald. She was previously seen on the short-lived NBC program "Mister Sterling."

"The Bedford Diaries," which is set a Manhattan college, is "an ensemble drama about the lives of resident and commuter students from all kinds of social and economic backgrounds and their teachers. The show specifically centers on a human behavior seminar where (the students) openly talk about their sexual lives or the lack of sexual lives and come to understand themselves and the world they live in better."

A four-time Tony Award winner for her work in A Raisin in the Sun, Master Class, Carousel and Ragtime, Audra McDonald was also seen on Broadway in Henry IV. The singer-actress made her solo Carnegie Hall concert debut in an evening of songs scored for big bands, performing several tunes from her Nonesuch CD "Happy Songs." McDonald's other solo recordings, "Way Back to Paradise" and "How Glory Goes," are also on the Nonesuch label.