The Morning Show curse? Apple TV+ show’s second season gets a rewrite.

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The Morning Show
Season one also had to be rewritten at the last moment.
Photo: Apple

For the second time, a season of The Morning Show is having to be completely rewritten to reflect sweeping global changes.

The Apple TV+ show had to be virtually rebooted prior to the filming of Season 1 due to the #MeToo movement and the firing of TV host Matt Lauer as the result of sexual impropriety accusations. Now Deadline reveals that Season 2 is also being rewritten — this time to reflect the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We shot two episodes [of the new season] before we shut down due to the pandemic,” Mark Duplass, who plays producer Chip Black on the show, told Deadline. “But I know that they’re also rewriting, which is crazy because that’s what happened in the first season. They had a whole set of scripts [then] and they rewrote everything to include the #MeToo movement, and now we’ve got other, larger, global phenomenon to deal with. I don’t know what they’re doing but I know they’re rewriting.”

Of course, having to rewrite the first season of the show due to the #MeToo movement (a good thing) is not equivalent to having to rewrite the second due to coronavirus (a bad thing.) Nonetheless, it seems likely that both situations caused a few sleepless nights for producers and scriptwriters.

The Morning Show Season 2 is being rewritten

Duplass said he has no idea when Season 2 of The Morning Show will re-enter production. Like a lot of movie and TV production, it’s currently shut down due to COVID-19.

It will be interesting to see how showrunners work the coronavirus into the drama’s storylines. With real-life TV networks scrambling to let hosts present shows from their homes (many with the aid of Apple devices), this will surely be an interesting challenge for the The Morning Show’s writers. Expect to see lots of iPhones being used for home filming. Possibly.

The Morning Show was arguably the most high-profile Apple TV+ show when it launched with the service last November. With a budget per episode that’s higher than the final season of Game of Thrones, The Morning Show made clear Apple’s ambitions to present grown-up, high-quality programming that could help it make waves in the streaming TV arena. Recently the show was nominated for several Emmy Awards. It also picked up Golden Globe nominations and a Screen Actors Guild award for star Jennifer Aniston.

Have you been watching The Morning Show? Are you a fan? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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