Reese Witherspoon's new TV show costs Apple $240m

From Digital Spy

Reese Witherspoon's forthcoming TV show with Jennifer Aniston is costing Apple rather a lot of cash.

Following a competitive auction, Apple landed the rights to the drama, which first went into pre-production in July last year.

Witherspoon's production company Hello Sunshine – one of the key players behind Big Little Lies – sold three new projects to Apple, totalling a third of Apple's TV purchases to date.

However, Witherspoon and Aniston's as-yet-untitled series cost Apple an enormous $240 million, reports the New York Times.

This marks one of the most expensive TV deals in history – though according to Apple TV executives Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, it's worth it.

In a statement, Amburg and Erlicht said Witherspoon had "an extraordinary knack for being a step ahead of the zeitgeist".

Related: Big Little Lies season 2 – Everything you need to know

The upcoming Apple series was inspired by Top of the Morning, a book by CNN media reporter Brian Stelter about the morning television wars.

Aniston and Witherspoon will star as journalists for a morning news show. The show is described as an 'inside look at the lives of the people who help America wake up in the morning, exploring the unique challenges faced by the women (and men) who carry out this daily televised ritual'.

It was previously confirmed that the series, written by former House of Cards producer Jay Carson, received a two-season, straight-to-series order, and will feature 10 episodes per season.

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