Apple TV Renews 'The Morning Show' for a Final Season
-----------------------------------------------------
Apple's flagship streaming drama will officially sign off in 2027,
bringing its eight-year run to a close
In 2019, Apple kicked off its new streaming service with
The Morning Show, a high-profile drama that made Jennifer Aniston
and Reese Witherspoon the highest-paid TV stars in Hollywood.
However, all good things must come to an end, and after nearly
eight years, five seasons, and a lengthy list of awards,
The Morning Show is about to sing its swan song.
Apple telegraphed the end today while announcing the fifth -?and
final -?season in a post on X, noting that "Alex and Bradley are
back where they belong."
While Apple hasn't announced a premiere date for the new season
beyond "coming in 2027," tradition makes it a pretty safe bet that
we'll be looking for a September debut.
The first season of The Morning Show launched the same day as
"Apple TV+" (as it was then known), on November 1, 2019. However,
seasons 2-4 have been as predictable as Apple's iPhone launches,
coming on September 17, 2021, September 13, 2023, and September 17,
2025 -?with each season premiering between the launch event and
release date of the iPhone 13, iPhone 15, and iPhone 17.
That makes it a pretty safe bet that we can expect the show's final
season to kick off around the same time as Apple's "iPhone 19"
lineup -?or the so-called "iPhone 20" if Apple decides to mark the
device's two-decade anniversary in some way.
The timing would certainly be apropos, considering that we first
heard of Apple's official plans for The Morning Show on November 8,
2017 -?five days after the iPhone X hit store shelves.
Defining Apple TV's Trajectory
When The Morning Show finally arrived in 2019, it was considered the
crown jewel of Apple's nascent streaming service. From the day that
Apple unveiled its plans in March - with Aniston and Witherspoon on
stage at the event -?to the debut of its November programming
lineup, the message was clear: Apple would be focusing on quality of
shows, not quantity.
Apple TV launched with only eight original series. One of those was
unscripted (Oprah's Book Club), and three -?Snoopy in Space,
Ghostwriter, and Helpsters -?were kids shows. That left only four
scripted adult shows: The Morning Show, See, For All Mankind, and
Dickinson, the last of which was a half-hour comedy (albeit a
slightly dark one).
While some critics debated the "quality" argument in the early days
of the service, one thing was clear: Apple wasn't afraid to throw
large bags of money at its original shows. Even before the service
launched, insiders reported that See had a budget of around
$15 million per episode. While that was on par with cinematic
world-building epics like Game of Thrones, it was still more than
most feature films cost.
The budget for The Morning Show wouldn't have been far off. Jennifer
Aniston and Reese Witherspoon were taking in $2 million each per
episode just for their starring roles, and that was on top of what
they'd have also been making as executive producers and owners of
the show, which was produced by their own studios. Reports suggested
that the first two seasons cost Apple around $300 million all told.
However, it wasn't just about money. The Morning Show also brought
Jennifer Aniston back to television after 15 years on the big
screen, and marked Reese Witherspoon's first-ever role in a regular
TV series (as an aside, it's a bit ironic that one of Witherspoon's
few TV guest appearances was actually in the role of Aniston's
character's sister in Friends).
Add in Steve Carell, and this was a drama being led by actors who
had traditionally done lighter fare like romantic comedies.
The Morning Show was nothing like Friends, Legally Blonde, or
The Office, so it wasn't surprising it took a while for critics to
adjust.
With For All Mankind also expected to air its sixth and final season
next year, The Morning Show will mark the end of an era: the last
one of the original Apple TV shows to have its series finale.
<
https://www.idropnews.com/news/morning-show-renewed-fifth-final-season/266615/>
--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)