Jennifer Aniston bags Screen Actors Guild award for The Morning Show

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The Morning Show's Billy Crudup earns Apple TV+ its first major awards win
Jennifer Aniston and Billy Crudup in The Morning Show.
Photo: Apple

Jennifer Aniston earned a Screen Actors Guild award for her portrayal of embattled news anchor Alex Levy in The Morning Show.

The former Friends star, who also co-produces the Apple TV+ show, won for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series. Aniston beat out Olivia Coleman of The Crown and Jodie Comer of Killing Eve.

The Golden Globes snubbed Apple’s original shows earlier this month, despite several nominations for The Morning Show and its cast. But the series, about a TV morning show rocked by sexual misconduct and the resulting power plays, is receiving high-profile recognition elsewhere.

Just a week after Billy Crudup won Best Supporting Actor at the Critics Choice Awards, Aniston picked up an award of her own.

Continued success for The Morning Show

“You know, I was thinking back to when I was a little girl. I didn’t have a VCR but I had a tape recorder and I would tape Laverne & Shirley, Happy Days …” Aniston said during her acceptance speech. “And I would listen to these episodes. And I would just think I’m going to, I’m going to do that.”

Aniston obviously went on to star in one of the most successful and most beloved TV sitcoms of all time. She has starred in countless movies and made cameos in other shows since then. But The Morning Show is Aniston’s first real return to TV since Friends finished in 2004.

Aniston said she was grateful to Kerry Ehrin, The Morning Show’s head writer, who created characters “so layered and complicated and messy and ugly and just beautifully human.

“And, boy, did we get to dive deep into our own experiences and our own history and really be able to breathe life into these extraordinary characters,” she added. “I mean, who knew that emotional breakdowns felt so good?”

Billy Crudup, Steve Carell nominated

Crudup and Steve Carell, who plays disgraced anchor Mitch Kessler, also earned SAG nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor. But they lost out to Peter Dinklage for his depiction of Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones.

The Morning Show has become the most successful Apple original so far. Critics panned it early on, but viewers couldn’t get enough — and many are calling it one of the best shows of 2019. Apple ordered a second season of The Morning Show, which should hit Apple TV+ later this year.

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