The Morning Show Season 4 Is About to Unleash Total Chaos — Here's Why You Can't Miss It

After two years off the air, Apple TV+'s most extra workplace drama is back. The Morning Show season 4 picks up two years after last season and immediately reminds you why this thing won awards and also launched a thousand memes. It is prestige soap in the best way: glossy, campy, occasionally devastating, and weirdly funny. The show started as a #MeToo reckoning and has grown into a full-blown media-industry fever dream. And with a fifth season already locked, this new run is very much setting the table for where this circus goes next.

Heads up: spoilers for seasons 1–3 and season 4, episode 1 ahead.

1. Women are running the place now
   The UBA/NBN merger is done, and the new media hydra is called UBN. At the top: three women. Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) is now firmly at the big-kids table, CEO Stella Bak (Greta Lee) has the corner office, and new board chair Celina Dumont (Marion Cotillard) is the polished wild card. Alex has survived scandal after scandal and somehow only gets more beloved, but it hits different when you are one of the people in charge. Stella, finally out from mentor Cory Ellison's shadow (and still carrying scars from her run-in with tech mogul Paul Marks), has to juggle relationships with hard calls — including whether producer Mia Jordan (Karen Pittman) finally gets the Head of News job she deserves. As for Celina, she is old-money French, runs the board, and looks like she could smile while blowing up your calendar. The power shift is real; what they do with it is the season's big question.

2. Marion Cotillard enters the chat
   Yes, that Marion Cotillard. Oscar winner. International icon. As Celina, she brings instant gravity — and mischief. If you remember her last mysterious corporate type ended with a bad car ride in The Dark Knight Rises, maybe do not count on this staying quiet. This is also the show that launched Reese Witherspoon's on-screen alter ego into space before a certain pop star strapped into a rocket-themed stage. Cotillard can do elegant chaos, and this sandbox is perfect for it.

3. Stella's very complicated fling
   Speaking of chaos: Stella is having a too-hot-for-HR affair with Miles (Aaron Pierre), a charismatic artist who also happens to be Celina's husband. The premiere tees it up with a flirtatious bar scene that is actually not a first meeting — this thing is already in progress. Lee and Pierre spark, but the eventual fallout when Celina inevitably clocks it? Going to be messy, and probably unmissable. Also: Greta Lee is fresh off Past Lives, so it is a pleasure to see her get even more to play.

4. Jeremy Irons as Alex's dad
   Legend alert. Jeremy Irons shows up as Martin Levy, Alex's academic father. There is history here — the kind you only mention in careful tones. Martin wants Alex to help cement his legacy by keeping attention on his life's work. Alex does not exactly squeal with delight. Expect this to detonate later in trademark Alex fashion.

5. Cory Ellison, Hollywood producer?
   Billy Crudup's beautifully unhinged ex-CEO is not out of the game; he is just playing a different one. Cory has decamped to California and is producing movies, because of course he is. His season 3 exit made it seem like his story might be over, and his love for Bradley was laid bare as they went their separate ways. Not so fast. Alex has a plan to pull him back in, potentially as a complication for Bradley. However it happens, a Cory-Bradley reunion is coming, and it will be loaded.

6. Bradley is back... for now
   After helping hide her brother's role in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, Bradley (Reese Witherspoon) was staring down legal trouble. When season 4 finds her, she is teaching in Virginia and pretending to enjoy the quiet. Mia shows up to pitch a limited on-air comeback — which conveniently helps UBN woo red-state viewers and change the subject from prior scandals. The catch: Bradley is only free because she cut a deal with the FBI. She is returning to New York as a journalist who is also an informant. That is a walking conflict of interest. Alex is not thrilled, and honestly, this has 'blow up spectacularly' written all over it.

7. AI takes center stage
   Stella is leading a push to bake AI into UBN's coverage, especially with the 2024 Paris Olympics looming. In 2025, media is already neck-deep in AI debates — accuracy, trust, manipulation, the works — so the show choosing to wade in makes sense. Can a melodrama handle a big, thorny topic? This one can, mostly because it has never been shy about swinging for the fences.

8. Chris Hunter levels up
   Nicole Beharie (Miss Juneteenth) was a season 3 highlight as former Olympic champ turned host Christine 'Chris' Hunter. Season 4 pushes her to the front of the actual morning show. That means more influence, more pressure, and, hopefully, more of her life outside the studio. She is one of the series' most interesting POVs; let her cook.

9. Is Clare Conway coming back?
   Bel Powley was spotted filming in New York with Witherspoon, which strongly hints that Bradley's old assistant, Clare, returns. Last we saw her, she was furious at UBA over how the company failed Hannah (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who died by suicide in season 1, and Clare's own office romance with weatherman Yanko Flores (Nestor Carbonell) was a mess. Now Yanko is the TMS anchor and in a new relationship. If Clare reappears, that could complicate things fast.

10. Paul Marks is not done
    Jon Hamm's billionaire disruptor looked like a goner after season 3 — career torched, romance with Alex over. Not quite. Apple TV+ confirms Hamm is back this season. Friend? Foe? Something uglier? Hamm and Aniston have real chemistry, so expect sparks no matter how he re-enters the story.

The Morning Show is bigger, messier, and somehow even more fun this year. Season 4 streams Wednesdays on Apple TV+ through November 19, and season 5 is already a go. Buckle up.