Apple is saying goodbye to one of its founding series. "The Morning Show" will get a fifth season – and then it's over. The farewell coincides with the very show that launched the streaming service in 2019.
Apple TV confirmed on Thursday that "The Morning Show" will end in 2027 with its fifth and final season. The series, starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, was one of the titles with which the streaming service launched on November 1, 2019. The fourth season is currently airing worldwide and takes place in spring 2024, almost two years after the events of the third season – in which the merged network UBA-NBN grapples with deepfakes, conspiracy theories, and the question of which news sources can still be trusted. This leaves a gap of just over a year between the current season and the finale, a period that Apple TV will have to fill with other programming.
Who will be appearing in the final season
Alongside Aniston and Witherspoon, the familiar ensemble returns: Billy Crudup, Mark Duplass, Nestor Carbonell, Karen Pittman, Nicole Beharie, and Jon Hamm. They are joined by an unusually prominent lineup of newcomers – Jeff Daniels, Reneé Rapp, Jesse Williams, Sean Hayes, and Lizzy Caplan, with Apple leaving other names to be announced.
Some of the cast members were already announced in the spring, though at that time without any indication that this was the final season. Behind the camera, the lineup remains unchanged: Charlotte Stoudt is the showrunner responsible for the script, and Mimi Leder is the director and producer.
A planned end instead of a dismissal
The crucial difference to many streaming show endings lies in the timing of the decision. According to Aniston, the ending was already decided before production began, allowing the team to consciously construct the conclusion and bring the characters' stories to a close. Witherspoon speaks of nine years during which she produced and starred in the series, and describes it as a story about press freedom rather than a newsroom.
The show's track record is certainly impressive. The third season garnered 16 Emmy nominations, Crudup won his second Emmy for his role as Cory Ellison, and also received a Critics' Choice Award. The American Film Institute ranked the season among the ten best television productions of 2023. Aniston, in turn, won a SAG Award for her portrayal of Alex Levy.
The starting class of 2019 is saying goodbye
The timing is particularly noteworthy in connection with another announcement. "For All Mankind" launched on the same November 1st, 2019, as "The Morning Show," and Apple announced the end of the space drama in March after its sixth season. That finale is also scheduled for 2027.
This means that the provider's two longest-running dramas will end in the same year. What remains is a younger generation: "Severance," "Silo," "Ted Lasso," and "Slow Horses," which has already been ordered for up to a seventh season and will surpass the two founding series in terms of running time. So the catalog isn't shrinking in size—but the titles that once defined the service are being phased out.
What saying goodbye costs in this country
For German subscribers, the comparison remains favorable. Apple TV costs €9.99 per month in Germany, while in the US Apple now charges $12.99 – this price increase has not been replicated in Germany. The service is also included in Apple One starting at €19.95, and a subscription can be shared with up to five other people via Family Sharing.
Apple still doesn't offer an ad-supported subscription like Netflix and Disney+. Anyone wanting to watch the final season has to pay the same price as for everything else in the catalog – a model that is likely to come under increasing pressure with rising production costs.
Apple TV's founding generation is coming to an end
The end of "The Morning Show" is more than just the end of a series. Apple is closing the chapter that made the service visible in the first place: two Hollywood names, a billion-dollar budget, and a story that originated within its own industry. The fact that both founding dramas are ending in the same year shifts the entire burden to series that were added after the launch - and to the question of whether Apple will allow the next generation to sustain a similarly long run. (Image: Apple)
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