Karolina Wojtasik/Apple TV+
This week’s installment of The Morning Show is all about the needle drops. We open on The Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” as Cory (Billy Crudup) swaggers into UBA’s big upfront presentation. Get it? Because UBA is trying to stay alive after a huge racism scandal rocked the media company and exiled a big legacy exec. They’re going to need some sort of miracle to convince advertisers to buy in after a botched deal with billionaire Paul Marks (Jon Hamm) and the huge hack targeting the company.
As with most traditional upfronts—which, if you didn’t know, are big gatherings held by networks that introduce its new slate of programming as a way to convince ad folks to toss money at the channels—a big comedian is hosting. Retta, playing herself, makes the whole racism scandal (which the show is now calling #JemimaGate) look like a joke. It’s no problem! At the same time, she also makes Cory out to be a complete fool.
“Some call him captain of the Titanic, others, Napoleon at Waterloo,” Retta booms, introducing the man of the hour. “I call him the man who definitely did not cut the brake lines in Mitch Kessler’s car.”