Producers of the Emmy-winning Apple TV+ series The Morning Show said the program’s fourth season, though set in 2024, will not dramatize the presidential election or President Donald Trump’s bid for re-election.
"We did not touch the election — this season ends right before the election," director and executive producer Mimi Leder told The Hollywood Reporter. Leder said the season’s central theme is trust and that its storylines will explore issues such as artificial intelligence, deepfakes, environmental disasters and journalists under threat.
The series, which stars Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon and was inspired in part by Brian Stelter’s 2013 book Top of the Morning, has previously interwoven real-world events into its fictional newsroom. Past seasons addressed the #MeToo movement, the coronavirus pandemic and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Showrunner Charlotte Stoudt said that while the writers did not build a direct election storyline, former President Trump and President Joe Biden are referenced in the season as a commentary on "two older White men" running for office.
"We try to go at it sideways. We don’t really have, directly, an election story, but we do touch on the idea of: Why were two older White men running for president. Why do we still need daddy?" Stoudt said.
Co-star Nestor Carbonell described the new season as placing less emphasis on the overtly political and more on social implications within the news organization. "There are politics, but they’re politics within the station, less so on the political election," he said.
The decision to avoid the election comes amid industry debate over how much current politics should appear in film and television. Some entertainment insiders told trade outlets that a return to the White House by Mr. Trump has prompted concern about a chilling effect on the creative community and a rise in self-censorship. An anonymous producer cited by one outlet said audiences have grown tired of seeing politics in entertainment, while others have pointed to broader market and cultural shifts.
Trade coverage has also noted executive turnover at studios that had focused on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, with some industry figures characterizing the personnel changes as part of a larger reckoning. A blockbuster producer told Vulture in January that Hollywood had "swung too far left" and that a correction was to be expected.
Apple TV+ has positioned The Morning Show as a drama-satire about the pressures facing modern journalists and the institutions that employ them. Producers said the upcoming season will emphasize how technology and disinformation shape public trust, even as it avoids dramatizing a presidential campaign.
The fourth season is scheduled to premiere Sept. 17. As in earlier seasons, the series will continue to dramatize the internal dynamics of a fictional morning news program while drawing on contemporary issues that influence the media ecosystem.
