Steve Carell Is Back: HBO Max Unveils New Series Title and Premiere Date
Steve Carell’s new HBO Max series has a title at last: Rooster, the Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses project set to debut on HBO in March 2026.
Steve Carell has his next TV swing lined up, and it finally has a name and a date. It is a Bill Lawrence joint, which tells you a lot about the tone right out of the gate.
The short version
- Title: Rooster
- Where: Premieres on HBO, then streams on HBO Max
- When: March 2026
- Season size: 10 episodes
- Creators: Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses (longtime collaborators who both go back to Scrubs)
- Cast: Steve Carell, Charly Clive, Danielle Deadwyler, Phil Dunster, John C. McGinley, Lauren Tsai
- Setting: A college campus
What the show actually is
Carell plays an author navigating a messy father-daughter dynamic at a university, with Charly Clive as the daughter. HBO describes the core of it like this:
'An author and his complicated relationship with his daughter.'
Simple logline, loaded setup. Coming from Lawrence and Tarses, expect the balance to lean toward comedy with real-life bruises underneath.
Who is steering this and what else they are juggling
Rooster comes from Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses. Lawrence created Scrubs and has kept busy: his 2024 series Bad Monkey is already at work on season 2 for Apple TV+. He also has another season of Ted Lasso in development. Tarses has teamed up with Lawrence on multiple projects over the years, including Scrubs, so this pairing is very much a reunion.
The Carell factor
This is Carell’s first big TV comedy lead since Space Force, and it arrives after a run of heavier roles that reminded everyone he can do dramatic tension as well as cringe brilliance: The Morning Show, The Patient. On top of Rooster, he recently signed on to co-star with Tina Fey in Netflix’s The Four Seasons, and he has Mountainhead on the film side in 2025, from Succession creator Jesse Armstrong. So, yes, the schedule is busy.
Timing and rollout
HBO is planting the flag for March 2026. Expect the standard HBO pattern: air on the network first, then roll onto HBO Max after episodes premiere on HBO. It is a bit of a wait, but a 10-episode Bill Lawrence show with this cast sounds worth circling on the calendar.