Variety and CNN Reveal a Star-Studded Guest Lineup for the New Season of Actors on Actors

Variety is bringing back Actors on Actors for Season 23, and this time they are teaming with CNN. Yes, the YouTube staple is graduating to a bigger stage, but it is not ditching YouTube entirely. Here is how the rollout works, who is talking to whom, and why this one feels like a flex.

Quick refresher: what the show is

If you have missed it, Actors on Actors is exactly what it sounds like: two performers interviewing each other about their latest projects. The fun is in the pairings and the shop talk. Past seasons have thrown together combos you do not usually see on a couch: Brad Pitt with Adam Sandler, Andrew Garfield with Ryan Reynolds, Jennifer Lawrence with Viola Davis. They also like a theme or a reunion, like Colin Farrell and Danny DeVito comparing their Penguin takes, or Airheads pals Brendan Fraser and Adam Sandler catching up.

The CNN move, and where to watch

Season 23 is the first under a new partnership with CNN. Episodes will be available to subscribers of the CNN streaming app and debut daily on CNN at 9 a.m. ET. The same episodes then land on Variety's digital platforms, including Variety's YouTube channel, at 3 p.m. ET the same day. The season rolls out one episode per day for 13 straight days starting Friday, December 5.

The 13-day lineup

• Friday, Dec. 5: Ariana Grande ("Wicked: For Good") and Adam Sandler ("Jay Kelly")
• Saturday, Dec. 6: Julia Roberts ("After the Hunt") and Sean Penn ("One Battle After Another")
• Sunday, Dec. 7: Jonathan Bailey ("Wicked: For Good," "Jurassic World Rebirth") and David Corenswet ("Superman")
• Monday, Dec. 8: Dwayne Johnson ("The Smashing Machine") and Brendan Fraser ("Rental Family")
• Tuesday, Dec. 9: Gwyneth Paltrow ("Marty Supreme") and Jacob Elordi ("Frankenstein")
• Wednesday, Dec. 10: Cynthia Erivo ("Wicked: For Good") and Hugh Jackman ("Song Sung Blue")
• Thursday, Dec. 11: Sydney Sweeney ("Christy") and Ethan Hawke ("Blue Moon")
• Friday, Dec. 12: Stellan Skarsgard ("Sentimental Value") and Alexander Skarsgard ("Pillion")
• Saturday, Dec. 13: Michael B. Jordan ("Sinners") and Jesse Plemons ("Bugonia")
• Sunday, Dec. 14: Kate Hudson ("Song Sung Blue") and Jeremy Allen White ("Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere")
• Monday, Dec. 15: Oscar Isaac ("Frankenstein") and Teyana Taylor ("One Battle After Another")
• Tuesday, Dec. 16: Colin Farrell ("Ballad of a Small Player") and Jessie Buckley ("Hamnet")
• Wednesday, Dec. 17: Jennifer Lawrence ("Die My Love") and Leonardo DiCaprio ("One Battle After Another")

Why this season stands out

The lineup is stacked with people either headlining huge studio swings or buzzy awards titles, and some of these pairings feel like they were engineered in a very fun lab. Also worth flagging: this is an Emmy-winning series leaving its YouTube-first comfort zone to premiere on CNN each morning, then circling back to YouTube later the same day. If you are not a CNN streaming subscriber, you can still catch every episode on Variety's channels at 3 p.m. ET.

Print issue is back too

Variety is also doing its annual Actors on Actors print magazine, photographed by Alexi Lubomirski, hitting newsstands on December 17.

"With exclusive revelations from Leonardo DiCaprio, Julia Roberts, Sean Penn, Jennifer Lawrence, Dwayne Johnson, Michael B. Jordan, Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Ethan Hawke and more, this is our best season of Actors on Actors yet. We can't wait for fans of this Emmy-winning series to savor every minute of these conversations on CNN and Variety."

- Ramin Setoodeh, Variety's co-editor in chief and co-president