The Morning Show (American TV series)


The Morning Show is an American drama web television series starring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carell, that premiered on Apple TV+ on November 1, 2019. The series is inspired by Brian Stelter's book Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV.

Premise

Alex Levy anchors The Morning Show, a popular breakfast news program broadcast from Manhattan on the UBA network that has excellent viewership ratings and is perceived to have changed the face of American television.
After her on-air partner of 15 years, Mitch Kessler, is fired amidst a sexual misconduct scandal, Alex fights to retain her job as top news anchor while sparking a rivalry with Bradley Jackson, a haphazard field reporter whose series of impulsive decisions bring her into a new world of TV journalism.

Cast and characters

Main

Season 1

Season 1 (2019)

Production

Development

On November 8, 2017, it was announced that Apple had given the production a series order consisting of two seasons of ten episodes apiece. The series was set to be executive produced by Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Jay Carson, and Michael Ellenberg. Carson was expected to act as a writer and showrunner for the series as well. Production companies involved with the series were slated to consist of Media Res, Echo Films, and Hello Sunshine. On April 4, 2018, it was announced that Carson had departed the production over creative differences. He was replaced as executive producer and showrunner by Kerry Ehrin. On July 11, 2018, it was reported that Mimi Leder would serve as a director and executive producer for the series. On October 23, 2018, it was reported that Kristin Hahn and Lauren Levy Neustadter would serve as additional executive producers for the series.
On June 22, 2020, Aniston revealed in a Variety interview with Lisa Kudrow that the show's development began before the MeToo movement, but was ultimately reworked to include and partially focus on it.
The show cost $15 million per episode, with Aniston and Witherspoon each earning $2 million per episode, not including producing fees and ownership points.

Casting

Alongside the initial series announcement, it was confirmed that Aniston and Witherspoon had been cast in the series' lead roles. In October 2018, it was announced that Steve Carell, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Billy Crudup, Néstor Carbonell and Mark Duplass had been cast in series regular roles. On November 7, 2018, it was reported that Bel Powley, Karen Pittman, and Desean Terry had joined the main cast of the series.

Filming

Principal photography for the first season commenced on October 31, 2018, at the James Oviatt Building in Los Angeles, California. Filming continued in Los Angeles until filming started in New York City on May 9, 2019. Filming of the first season also wrapped in May 2019, after seven months of filming.
Production on the second season began on February 24, 2020. On March 12, 2020, Apple TV+ suspended production on the series due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Release

After the Apple Special Event of March 25, 2019, Witherspoon announced on Instagram that the series would premiere in the fall of 2019. It premiered on Apple TV+ on November 1, 2019.

Marketing

During the Apple Special Event, a teaser trailer was released with footage from the series as well footage from other original series set to premiere on Apple TV+. Furthermore, Aniston, Witherspoon, and Carell were at the event to tease the series.
On August 12, 2019, Apple released a first look trailer for the series. It was also revealed that the series will be titled Morning Wars in Australia, in order to distinguish the series from the Australian morning talk show of the same name. On August 19, 2019, Apple released a full trailer for the series.

Critical response

The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 61% approval rating, based on 102 reviews, with an average rating of 5.78/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Flashy, but somewhat frivolous, The Morning Show often feels more like a vanity project than the hard-hitting drama it aspires to be—but there is pleasure to be had in watching Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon give it their all." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 61 out of 100 based on reviews from 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave a positive review and wrote: "The Morning Show doesn't have the cinematic gravitas of the Showtime series The Loudest Voice or the Aaron Sorkin poetry of HBO's The Newsroom. It's more along the lines of the solid but underachieving Sports Night TV series from the late 1990s."

Awards and nominations