Apple orders two seasons of Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon TV drama

Apple’s original content ambitions just landed some premiere talent, per The Hollywood Reporter: A drama series focused on a fictional version of the morning TV show world, based on background from CNN media reporter Brian Stelter’s book ‘Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV’ and starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon has been picked up straight to series by the tech giant.

The program will start with two 10-episode seasons starring the top Hollywood actresses, and will allow the behind-the-scenes lives of the people who work on morning TV. Witherspoon and Aniston are also both attached in executive producer capacities on top of their starring roles, and the show was bid on by multiple potential publishers, including Showtime.

This is the second major original content project we’ve seen come out of Apple’s efforts to build a major scripted video media push, following the news that Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories anthology series revival will land with Apple.

Earlier this year, WSJ reported that Apple will spend $1 billion on producing original content in 2018, and big budget projects like this one with high-profile stars attached seem to be the way they’re intending to spend that money. Already, it feels like a marked change from their debut projects from this last year, which include the competition reality show Planet of the Apps and the singalong in-car cameo fest Carpool Karaoke.

This show doesn’t yet have an official title or scripts written, but the concept was created by Michael Ellenberg, the former EVP of drama development for HBO, who oversaw the launch of True Detective, Westworld, Game of Thrones and Witherspoon’s Big Little Lies before departing the network last year.