'The Morning Show' Season 2: Everything to Know About the Apple TV+ Series

Michael Hein

08/31/2021 01:55 pm EDT

The Morning Show Season 2 is nearly here, and many fans are just catching up on the latest news from the production. The series stars Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon as the co-hosts of a cable news morning talk show, and it is one of the biggest hits produced for Apple TV+ so far. Scroll down for everything we know about the new season so far.

The Morning Show Season 1 premiered on Nov. 1, 2019, with the launch of the Apple TV+ streaming service. Like so many other shows, the second season was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it will finally premiere in September of 2021. Aniston, Witherspoon and other main cast members are returning, including Steve Carell, Billy Crudup, Mark Duplass, Néstor Carbonell, Karen Pittman, Bel Powley, Desean Terry and Jack Davenport. New actors are joining the cast as well, while a few have left the series. Executive producer Kerry Ehrin remains the showrunner.

The set has been pretty secretive throughout filming, but as always a few tidbits of information have slipped out. These compliment some of the big official announcements, which are more plentiful now that the premiere date is drawing closer. Here's what we know about The Morning Show Season 2 so far.

Premiere

(Photo: Apple TV+)

The Morning Show Season 2 premieres on Friday, Sept. 17 on Apple TV+. Like other Apple shows, it will air week-to-week rather than dropping all at once. More and more viewers are saying they prefer this method as it builds suspense and allows people to jump on board throughout a season rather than feeling like they missed the boat on a popular binge-watch.

Cliffhanger

(Photo: Apple TV+)

For those that don't remember, The Morning Show left off on a major cliffhanger at the end of Season 1. The first season depicted a Me Too movement-style outing of Mitch Kessler (Carell) as a serial sexual harasser in the workplace, and his co-host Alex Levy's (Aniston) attempt to re-establish trust., with the help of her new co-anchor Bradley Jackson (Witherspoon). The season ended with Alex and Bradley interviewing Mitch live, and outing their network and its president, Fred Micklen (Tom Irwin) for enabling Mitch over the years.

Flash Forward

From the looks of it, Season 2 picks up quite some time after this suspenseful finale when changes have had some time to take effect. The trailer shows that Alex has left the UBA network and The Morning Show behind, but Cory (Crudup) wants her to come back. Meanwhile, Bradley fears she is being "edged out" by the new regime, and is looking for alternative career options. Behind the scenes, UBA is focused entirely on keeping the ratings up.

Schedule

(Photo: Apple TV+)

The Morning Show Season 2 consists of 10 episodes, airing every Friday after Sept. 17 without a break. This means the season will end on Nov. 19. Binge-watchers can always pick it up near the end if they think they can avoid spoilers for that long.

Casting Changes

(Photo: Netflix)

In addition to the returning main cast members listed up top, there are a few changes being made to the lineup. Sadly, star Gugu Mbatha-Raw is not returning to the series, as her character has left the UBA world behind. Meanwhile, new cast members include Greta Lee, Juliana Margulies, Hasan Minhaj and Will Arnett.

Behind the camera, director Mimi Leder is returning for several episodes. In addition to Ehrin, Aniston, Witherspoon and Leder remain executive producers, along with Kristin Hahn, Michael Ellenberg and Lauren Neustadter. Series creator Jay Carson left the production early in the development process due to creative differences, but he is still credited this time around. The series is based loosely on Brian Stelter's book Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV.

Standing Questions

(Photo: Apple TV+)

There are a few mysteries to keep in mind going into Season 2, especially if you don't plan on rewatching Season 1 to refresh your memory. Although the premiere seems to skip forward, fans do not know why and when Alex left UBA and what her standing is with the public — or with her peers. We also don't know what Cory's scheme is at the moment, though it seems unlikely that he wants Alex back for altruistic reasons.

We don't know to what extent The Morning Show will tackle COVID-19, but that seems like a plausible excuse for Mitch's apparent seclusion in the Season 2 trailer. Finally, we don't yet know anything about Margulies' character, but fans are dying to see who this TV veteran will play and how she will fit into the series.

COVID-19 Delays

(Photo: NBC / Rosalind O'Connor)

Finally, for those curious about why this premiere took so long, it's worth noting how bad the timing was between production and the pandemic every step of the way. The Morning Show Season 2 had been filming for just 13 days in March of 2020 when stay-at-home orders began to go into effect in the U.S. and other parts of the world. Filming was allowed to resume in October, and by that time some storylines had been re-written to include the coronavirus in the show, according to a report by Deadline.

The delays are even the subject of a massive lawsuit between Always Smiling Productions and Chubb National Insurance Company. The production company claims that Chubb ows over $100 million in payouts to cover the cast for the lost work, a sum that could only be racked up under these extenuating circumstances.

The Morning Show Season 2 premieres on Friday, Sept. 17 on Apple TV+. Season 1 is streaming there now.

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