'The Morning Show' With Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon: What We Know

Jennifer Aniston is making her return to TV both in front of and behind the camera. In the pulled-from-the-headlines Apple TV+ drama The Morning Show, Aniston will costar and executive produce alongside her former on-screen sister from Friends, Reese Witherspoon, who is also executive producing. The two, who you'll be glad to hear are also close IRL, have been working to bring accuracy to the show—of which there is a ton of real-world inspiration in the news lately. "Reese and I were like...'The show is writing itself,'" Aniston explained. "It was as if the universe were begging for this patriarchal society to be exposed. It’s crazy." So what do we know about the show so far?

The premiere date is in November.

The premiere for the show is on November 1, 2019. That's also when Apple TV+ is debuting. If you have an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV, or Samsung smart TV (only on select models), you apparently already have Apple TV, which is where you'll watch Apple TV+. It's an add-on service for $4.99 a month.

The series ALSO stars Nestor Carbonell, Billy Crudup, Steve Carell, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Mark Duplass, soooo we're looking at some serious star power—and hopefully some more press coverage as the show really gets going.

The Morning Show did its research.

Both Aniston and Witherspoon worked with news producers in their research. “I was at Good Morning America at 5 a.m. to do some shadow work,” Aniston told Entertainment Weekly. “What a crazy world! From 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. it’s like a ghost town, and then slowly all the lights start turning on and all the sounds start getting louder and louder and louder, and then all of a sudden it’s this mad, insane, well-oiled machine and everyone’s somehow calm.”

Explains Witherspoon, "I was astounded by how honest a lot of female anchors were with myself and Jen. I think most people would find it shocking that women in that position, of what we perceive as power, are looked at as expendable. One thing that I thought was really demoralizing was how much they’re analyzed...Because test audiences are determining whether or not they’re likable to an American audience. Women who’ve worked so hard to become incredible journalists and to ascend to a position of what seemed like power are relatively powerless."

#MeToo played a role, but Witherspoon was interested in the series even before that. "When we started, the show was just a book [Top of the Morning by Brian Stelter], and nothing had happened with Harvey Weinstein or Les Moonves yet...The Roger Ailes scandal had happened the year before. Then, in October 2017, all those stories started to break about the way women in media were treated."

The trailer is out.

Obviously we don't know too much yet, beyond the fairly obvious that there are real-world news events happening right now that are making for strong parallels for the show. The show's about Jennifer Aniston (whose character is not yet named) struggling to keep up in an ever-changing, ageist world of morning news, and Reese Witherspoon plays her younger, hungry rival—and perhaps ally, as we'll find out.

Either way, I'm 100 percent in. We'll update this post when we know more.

For more stories like this, including celebrity news, beauty and fashion advice, savvy political commentary, and fascinating features, sign up for the Marie Claire newsletter.

SUBSCRIBE HERE