Steve Carell, Jennifer Aniston share details about new show for Apple

The big Apple event today revealed more details on Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston’s timely upcoming original show for Apple TV+ — and a preview of Steve Carell’s hilarious role in it.

The Morning Show sounds like a comedy-drama mixture of Anchorman meets Newsroom meets Mad Men.

“We pull back the curtain on the power dynamics between the men and the women of the high stakes world of morning news shows,” said Witherspoon. “It’s a real insider’s view on the lives of the people who help America wake up every day.”

“Through the prism of those over-adrenalized, under-slept people behind and in front of the camera, we take an honest look at the complex relationships between women and men in the workplace, and engage in the conversations people aren’t willing to have unless they’re behind closed doors,” said Aniston. 

To demonstrate some of those dynamics, Steve Carell — already legendary for exposing male stupidity in the workplace through Anchorman and The Office — strode up a day late and a dollar short to jokingly make it all about him.

“Yes I am here to provide the manliness,” he declared.

Repeating what the two powerful ladies already said as if it was his own idea, Carell pointedly described his character as, “very bold, and very dynamic. With a lot of gravitas, he’s a great listener, he’s relatable and extremely handsome. His colleagues love him and America loves him.”

Previously, Carell’s Mitch Kessler character has been described as being a “Matt Lauer” type anchor and, uh, yup. That checks out.

Bringing it back to the ladies at the heart of show, though, Witherspoon teased, “an ensemble of other characters, all form the very brilliant mind of our writer/producer Kerry Ehrin.”

Based on Brian Stelter’s nonfiction book Top of the Morning, The Morning Show not only proved exciting enough to bring Aniston back to TV but already snagged a two-season and twenty episode deal. The 2014 book published long before the #MeToo reckoning that took down legends like Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose.

But it sounds like The Morning Show definitely wants to go there.

“The Morning Show is a high velocity thrill ride where we pose questions without easy answers, and shine a light on the fault lines of society at this very complicated cultural moment,” said Witherspoon.