Carell joins Aniston, Witherspoon series
Steve Carell is set to join Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon in the cast of Apple’s upcoming morning-show drama. The role will be Carell’s first as a series regular since he left “The Office,” the NBC single-camera comedy that elevated him to stardom.
In the still-untitled Apple series, Carell will play Mitch Kessler, a morning show anchor who is struggling to maintain relevance in a changing media landscape.
Announced last year, the project was the first drama series to be ordered by Apple as the tech giant began to execute on its designs to enter the televisionseries space. The drama hails from Michael Ellenberg’s Media Res studio. It is executive produced by Ellenberg.
The starry project was highly sought after by a number of outlets and landed a two-season order from Apple. Media Res, Aniston and Witherspoon are the principal owners of the show.
The series is based on an idea from Ellenberg and will draw background material from CNN senior media correspondent Brian Stelter’s 2013 book “Top of the Morning,” which recounted the recent rivalry between NBC’s “Today” and ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
In April, Jay Carson departed the project as showrunner and was replaced by Kerry Ehrin.