Yahoo News ‘The Morning Show’ Will Enter 2024’s Media-Scape “Mid-Chaos”
The Morning Show has a knack for writing itself into a corner. “It requires a lot of junk food to manage the stress,” says executive producer Charlotte Stoudt. “Part of me was like, ‘Who is that season three showrunner? I have a few words for her!’”
As said season three showrunner, Stoudt is joking. She’s now running her second writers room for the Emmy-winning Apple TV+ series, which will shoot its fourth season this summer. “We’re still writing, still breaking story. We’re very much in the middle of it,” she says, thinking back to where she left her characters in the season three finale, and adds with a laugh, “We caused ourselves a lot of problems.”
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The WGA Award-winning writer (Fosse/Verdon, Homeland, House of Cards) took over the showrunning reins in 2022 from Kerry Ehrin, who developed and ran the first two seasons. Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon (who each produce through their banners Echo Films and Hello Sunshine, respectively) lead an ensemble that includes Billy Crudup, Greta Lee, Karen Pittman and new addition Jon Hamm. Stoudt was tasked with bringing the news drama out of the COVID era, so she jumped season three ahead two years to 2022 and catapulted the world of The Morning Show (which is called TMS in the series) into the modern-day media crisis era.
Now, with season four, Stoudt plans to again jump two years from that final scene, which set its starring newswomen Alex Levy (Aniston) and Bradley Jackson (Witherspoon) on very different paths.
Not since the events of the Morning Show pilot have Alex and Bradley had such diverging trajectories. Thanks to an eleventh-hour coup, Alex outsmarted her love interest — an Elon Musk-ish tech billionaire played by Hamm who was attempting to acquire her parent network, UBA — and will finally be taking her seat at the table as she steers TMS into a merger with a rival news brand. Bradley, on the other hand, will be facing a possible felony charge for tampering with evidence and obstructing justice related to the investigation of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol (her brother, played by Joe Tippett, assaulted a police officer during the insurrection and Bradley, who caught the moment on camera, covered it up in her reporting, which forced her resignation).
For the first time, the finale didn’t end on a blank screen. The first two seasons saw Alex and Bradley blowing up the world of UBA, and both times the screen abruptly cut to black like an interrupted broadcast — and without any hint as to where the series about the chaotic inner workings of a morning news show in New York City would pivot to next. With season three, however, the Mimi Leder-directed hour closed on the faces of its two leads. And the looks from Alex and Bradley were jumping-off points for season four.
“You can’t look back, you have to look forward,” says Leder, also an executive producer, of the scene that was shot on the final day of filming. “Alex wanted a seat at the table, and so, what does that look like? They blew up the patriarchy, what does that come with? They were both walking into their future, into the unknown. Alex feels relief, excitement, fear and fulfillment. Bradley has a lot of fear attached, but also relief. When you do the right thing, there’s a great gratification. And that was where I wanted to leave our ladies — with big close-ups of those feelings.”
Leder says she did two takes with Witherspoon and three with Aniston, who expressed myriad emotions during what executive producer Michael Ellenberg calls her “powerful, all-commanding walkout” scene. “As a fan, you are in awe. And as a producer, you are like, ‘This is a knot!’ But the best television is television that backs itself into a corner and gets itself out of it,” he says of separating the A-list leads by more than a dressing room. “There are things that happen in life that fundamentally change relationships. It doesn’t mean you don’t engage with each other again, but it’s different. Seeing those evolutions is part of the exciting thing about season four and potentially beyond. By having a problem like this to solve, it justifies the show moving on.”
The actors felt the change on the horizon, even surprising Stoudt during filming. “I didn’t script this, but when Bradley turns and gives Alex that little smile, it just breaks my heart,” she says. “It’s like Bradley is saying, ‘You told me I was going to be OK. And I’m telling you that I believe you. It doesn’t matter if you go this way and I go that way, because I’m carrying you with me, and I want you to carry me with you.’ They exchange that little keepsake, and then they walk in opposite directions.”
Bradley could end up in a cell, while Alex is headed back to the boardroom. But Stoudt promises that viewers will see Aniston and Witherspoon in the same room again. Their characters, after all, are the central love story of The Morning Show.
“Their final look is what’s so beautiful about a close relationship, especially a women’s friendship,” says Stoudt. “Sometimes you don’t even have to be with the person to know they are present. And that sounds maybe a bit sunny, but if you feel like there’s a person in the world who has seen you, it’s much easier to go off and do your difficult thing. On a psyche level, you are not alone.”
After a tumultuous co-worker-ship that has turned into a friendship, Aniston believes the former co-anchors will always be there for each other. “Alex stays until Bradley walks all the way out of frame. They know deep down they will always have each other,” she says. But Aniston is slightly less sunny than Stoudt, if only because of the external factors at play. “Alex was very scared for her. She doesn’t know what the outcome for Bradley is going to look like. Ultimately, she loves Bradley. But Alex is also a realist. So however that character comes back in, we’ll see how that affects Alex’s war plan. Because she loves her, but not enough to sacrifice the big picture.”
When season four opens, The Morning Show will catch up to 2024. Alex will be in charge and some of her TMS co-workers, like UBA news division president Stella Bak (played by Lee) and TMS producer Mia Jordan (played by Pittman), will be elevated with her. “Stella is in the catbird seat, and slings and arrows are coming her way now,” teases Ellenberg, whose studio, Media Res, produces the series. “There’s a tonal and a sensibilities shift, and an edge to the season that the show has touched at times, but not in this way.”
On the outs are Paul Marks (Hamm), who was sidelined by the merger, and former UBA CEO Cory Ellison (Crudup), who was fired over his questionable relationship with junior employee Bradley. The merger will also bring in new characters, says Stoudt, but whether it means a return for everyone remains to be seen. “Everybody signed up; we’ll see two years later how it’s gone,” she says. Bradley’s now-ex Laura Peterson, played by Julianna Margulies, won’t be back for season four. But a future return, pending a season five renewal, isn’t ruled out.
One of the biggest questions the series plans to ask, Stoudt reveals, is whether the women can now run things better than the men. The major caveat is that Alex is getting her shot during a tenuous time for any multiplatform media brand. “People are chasing audiences everywhere, and people are distracted more than ever,” Witherspoon says. “There’s also this feeling of mistrust by audiences of traditional news, so we’re definitely up against it.”
Ellenberg describes this crisis period for media as one of existential stress. And he applauds Stoudt’s move to challenge Alex because of the possibilities it brings. “It’s been lurking ever since the big boardroom scene with Alex in season one — where she says, ‘You guys have done it long enough, it’s time for us to have a chance.’ This year is that chance,” he says. “They’re being handed the keys to the kingdom in a period where it’s almost impossible to succeed, so it can end up being a step back for progress. The show is curious about all of those realities. So I think Charlotte opened the runway so we can keep going as long as we’re all inspired to do so.”
If viewers can glean anything from the finale, it’s when Alex jokes to Bradley, “Be careful what you fight for.” Stoudt says she’s preparing to throw a lot at Aniston. “Out of the frying pan and into the fire. No good deed goes unpunished!” she says of the “powerhouse” actress. “Just insane talent,” she adds of her cast. “Unfortunately, they are very good actors, so I’m going to torture their characters.”
Every time she finishes a season, Aniston says she feels like she’s crawled her way to the finish line. “Women taking their power back can backfire terribly or it can succeed unbelievably,” she says. “Remind me at the end of shooting how excited I was now — when I’m wrung out like a washcloth then!” Stoudt says Alex could surprise herself when standing on her own in the midst of the forthcoming challenges: “She might be stronger than she thinks in some areas, and it might reveal more deficits, weaknesses, internal struggles in other areas. Everything that’s there is exposed, both strength and vulnerability.”
So, Aniston is in prep mode, bracing for what’s ahead. “Alex comes in, saves the day, the merger happens, and then we’re going to see a couple years down the line just how easy, or not, this undertaking has been,” she teases. “We reenter the world mid-chaos. Because she’s jumping into something that has never existed. She’s a bit of a pioneer, and she is kind of left alone on a buoy. Bradley’s not there. Cory’s not there. Paul Marks is not there. All of her touchstones.”
Alex has already come back from being canceled, something Bradley will similarly be faced with when the series explores consequences, accountability and what redemption could look like for the character who most values her journalistic integrity, and who had to make the impossible choice between protecting her brother or her career. Will The Morning Show follow Bradley into prison? “No comment,” says Stoudt, adding, “When you see the season, you will understand why I can’t give a straightforward answer to that.”
Witherspoon says it’s been a great litmus test to poll people in her life on whether they would have, like Bradley, committed a crime for a family member. “Most people say no. Or their question is, ‘Well, which one of my family members?’” the actress says with a laugh. “It was an incredible moral dilemma to explore through this character,” she adds of the Jan. 6 storyline and Bradley’s decision to turn herself in. “There really was no way out but the truth. I think a lot people have been in that position, where there’s no way out but being honest. We never contemplated her trying to evade the truth. But also, she walks into that building and we don’t really know what happens next. There are a hundred things that could have happened. We’re sort of weighing and measuring each one.”
When pitching this finale to her stars and executive producers, Stoudt recalls that Aniston and Witherspoon, along with the rest of the team, were on board because it was simple. “It had the benefit of emotional simplicity. You do want to end with the two ladies always, because that’s the core of the show,” says Stoudt. “People appreciated that they’re together but not together. That’s the contradiction. Everybody has to face what they have to face. There is accountability, but it’s not bleak. Even when you have to be accountable for something, life can go on.”
Witherspoon struggles to imagine life for Bradley without her career. But she also notes the real-life precedent for comebacks. “There have certainly been enough people who have pushed the boundaries of journalistic integrity and have managed to maintain their careers. It raises the question of who gets to come back, and who doesn’t,” she says. “We’ve seen a fall from grace with Alex and now we’re seeing it with Bradley. It’s a different world about what we accept and what we don’t.”
Bradley, as Witherspoon says, has created a lot of mess. Not only with her career and in her relationship, but also with Cory. The will-they-won’t-they pair were last seen in a hallway saying a goodbye of sorts, a scene made more poignant thanks to an added line of dialogue from Witherspoon. “Reese’s improv line, ‘I’ll miss you,’ was so truthful and so simple that we really caught our breaths. I think we all stopped breathing when she did it,” says Leder of the “emotional punch” that was delivered in the very final scene they shot for season three.
Stoudt says that, like Bradley and Alex parting paths, Bradley and Cory also have to “go away and do some thinking. A partner never solves the problem. You have to solve your problem,” she says. “That felt like a pretty definitive goodbye to me,” adds Witherspoon. “Bridges have been burned and I don’t know if we will get back to the same dynamics that we had before. There’s a lot of scorched earth, particularly in my character’s case.”
Scorched earth and existential crises aside, Stoudt says The Morning Show at its core is a very romantic series. “Despite all the cynicism, swearing and bad behavior, it is fundamentally an optimistic and romantic show that believes in truth and accountability, and that people should treat each other well.” What else can account for its having surpassed the three-season mark in this post-Peak TV era? “Maybe there’s something really appealing about seeing Jen and I at this stage in our lives being in charge. There’s something really satisfying about that, both in front of and behind the camera,” muses Witherspoon. “It’s nice to be in control of your own destiny.”
Who’s Doing What in Season 4?
CORY ELLISON (Billy Crudup)
What will Crudup’s character do, now that he has been cast out of UBA? “It’s interesting to watch people hustle,” says Stoudt. “Things are so uncertain. There are questions about our lives’ stability and we’re past the idea that there is stability for privileged people. How Cory dances through is a fun question.”
PAUL MARKS (Jon Hamm)
“If someone is not dead, they are still in the universe,” says Stoudt, leaning into a possible return for Alex’s ex, played by Hamm. “They’re still there. They haven’t disappeared forever. That will apply to a number of people this year.” Aniston adds, “I think the audience loved him and would love to see more of Paul. So, we’re figuring that out.” And Hamm agrees, recently saying, “I don’t think the relationship has run its course yet. It’s unfinished business.”
STELLA BAK AND MIA JORDAN (Greta Lee and Karen Pittman)
The TMS powerhouses played by Lee and Pittman will be a “big piece” of whatever UBA looks like after the merger with rival network NBN. “We love them, the audience loves them. They really are two people you root for so strongly,” says Stoudt.
LAURA PETERSON (Julianna Margulies)
Laura’s takedown of Bradley over her misreporting (which led to the couple breaking up) is motivation for Bradley. “She needs to get her soul clean. She needs to get right with God — and Laura Peterson,” says Stoudt of Margulies’ news anchor. Leder adds, “It was a pivotal scene in Bradley’s decision to tell the truth.” Viewers won’t see Laura in season four, but Stoudt’s answer above about characters not disappearing forever leaves the door open.
CELINE DUMONT (Marion Cotillard)
Cotillard’s new character sounds like another force to be reckoned with for the returning news team at UBA. The Oscar winner, who joins the cast for season four, will play Celine Dumont, who is described as a savvy operator from a storied European family.
CHRIS HUNTER (Nicole Beharie)
Beharie’s Chris was a welcome addition in season three, and season four will bring more new faces into the mix due to the merger, says Stoudt. Aniston and Witherspoon say they are excited about the yet-to-be announced new cast. “They will be really fun and challenging, for different points of view,” teases Witherspoon.
This story first appeared in a June standalone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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