The Morning Show

- Is Guy Fieri in the greenroom? - Mm-hmm.

- Grab him. Don't let him go. - Got it. Straight to rerun or…

- I wanted to hear from upstairs. - Go to The Twist !

Alex, what you did is amazing but we need to deal with this. Let us in.

- Twitter's going fucking nuts. - Oh, God.

Does the room feel like it's turning white?

- Alex. Alex. - Oh, gosh.

- Just one second, please! -

- Open up. - Those UBA fuckers,

they're going to fight to keep their credibility,

and that means some version of dragging us through the mud.

Fred has to go. They have to understand that.

We crossed a line,

and they're not gonna do what we want them to do because of that.

Alex, everything is gonna be fine.

- We love you. - Okay. Okay! Okay!

- I have to let them in. - Okay. I understand.

- Listen. I... - Wait, wait, wait. Before you do,

we have to stay together on this.

And whatever you do, don't mention Hannah by name.

She didn't want that.

- Okay. - Okay.

- Alex, I will break down the door... - Okay, okay, okay.

Oh, my God. Thank God.

- How are you? - Oh, my God. I just needed a second.

- Amazing what you did. - We're fine.

- Uh, where's the phone? Where's the phone? - Where's the phone? Get the phone.

Let's not say anything to anybody.

- I'm not talking. - Open our mouths, we weaken our position.

- Left, left. - So we're gonna keep our mouths shut.

- - Alex!

Wait, Brad.

Just keep your phone on and near you, okay?

- I'll... I'll call you. - Yeah, no, I'll take care of it. Come on.

- Give me my jacket. - Hold the elevator doors. Jim...

- Hold the doors. -

- -

You're a dead man.

Said the corpse.

No. Wait…

Um…

You're firing me?

You put Fred Micklen on administrative leave,

and you're firing me?

Did you not hear what was said on our airwaves this morning?

We heard. Loud and clear.

Uh, s... What, do you not believe the victim?

Or do you just not care?

'Course we believe the victim.

We believe all victims, every last one of them,

forever and ever until the end of time.

And if we are proven correct in that belief,

Fred will be terminated as well.

But none of us were in those rooms,

none of us can say with any certainty at this moment

what happened, except for Fred.

That's because the other person, Hannah Shoenfeld,

- died this morning. - E... Except for Fred.

Who steadfastly maintains his innocence.

If we find evidence that any of that was true,

we will extend zero tolerance.

Okay, well, that's horseshit, but okay.

Well, you can't terminate my contract without just cause,

and all I did was give the truth some oxygen.

The truth? Look, here's the truth.

We suspect Fred might not be innocent,

but we know you're guilty of taking over UBA's airwaves,

of allowing wild allegations to be made against the CEO of the network,

and of physically locking him out of his own control room.

Which, by the way, is also a serious fire hazard.

The fire hazard.

That was pirate television, and it has no place on our network.

This really is the land that time forgot.

All right. Well, I did my best,

but I cannot drag you idiots kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

You're just so caught up in ruling over your rotten little fiefdom

that you don't even see the world that has sprouted up all around you.

All right. Well, enjoy broadcasting your cave paintings

to the last remaining savages who are still watching over-the-air broadcasting.

The rest of the world,

they've moved to the cloud, and it is fucking gorgeous up there.

Cory, if you'll excuse us,

we have a television network we need to fix.

Well, get out that superglue.

Do you really think that's what all this is about?

Your little television network?

This is a battle for the soul of the universe.

Great move. Widen out.

And you didn't think we'd get her to sing.

Mm-hmm.

Eric talked her into it.

Standby, camera two. Take it, camera two.

Keep it fun, Bradley.

Did you know that this is actually about making New Year's Eve plans way too early?

All I know is we're gonna freeze our balls off

Yes, we are.

- Oh, shit. -

- - Two, ready? Take it, two.

- - Yeah, I just saw.

Another one bites the dust.

Multiple current and former employees have come forward

with allegations of emotional abuse

and are calling for the public to…

Times asking for a comment on one, Maggie Brener on three, said she'd hold.

- Media Relations left a word. -

They need to know what they're saying about Ray.

Is he still on a scheduled vacation, or can we announce anything?

And what's the board doing?

Emergency meeting to discuss Ray's replacement for the evening news chair.

Call back the Times,

give me Maggie Brener first and assemble the team,

Mia Jordan, Stella Bak, Vince Fontana, Legal, ASAP.

Additionally, one of Marcus's former assistants…

- Is she on? - She's on.

…that when she requested time off to attend

- her mother-in-law's funeral, Marcus… - Maggie,

I hope we gave you enough time to include this in your book.

All right, don't forget,

Bradley and I will be hosting UBA's New Year's Eve Extravaganza

tomorrow night live from Times Square.

Andrew W.K., Drake, Lauren Alaina, actual musical guests.

- No singing from us, thank goodness. - Hey, come on, I saw you having fun.

Is that what fun looks like to you?

Well, it looks like what you'll be seeing here on UBA

- starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern… - That's right.

…tomorrow night.

- We hope you can ring in 2020 with us. - Eric and I will be looking for you.

Now stay tuned for The Twist .

- And we're out. Good job, you guys. -

- Whew! -

Twitter's loving it.

- Really? - I told you.

All right, it was more fun than I thought.

Oh, Jesus.

Did you see this about Ray?

- Emotionally abusing his staff? - What?

- God. - No.

Gayle.

I pushed the issue, all right?

This is coming from Mia?

Mia wants to do "Nutrition in the New Year"?

Well, I think it has less to do with "Nutrition in the New Year"

and more to do with, you know, bumming everybody the fuck out.

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are two of the deadliest days of the year.

Alcohol consumption goes up, drug use rises, people die.

It's a fact. I'm sorry it's a bummer.

Okay, I was trying to give it to you easy, but, um, we weren't given an option.

I'm gonna go talk to her.

Bradley.

Ratings are down. Pick your battles.

You know, if they don't value me around here,

I have a feeling there's gonna be an opening on the evening news very soon.

That seems like a safe bet.

And I seriously doubt

Vince would tell me to do "Nutrition in the New Year"

on the evening news.

And by the way, Gayle,

you told me all this singing and dancing and playing along

was gonna buy me some freedom around this place.

I mean, I dyed my hair, I hosted their celebrity bowling show,

I... I did stupid TikTok dances on TV.

I did everything short of tattooing UBA on my ass, and for what?

You've gotten to do most of the stories you wanted to do.

If we stay the course, people will catch up.

I hope you're right.

I'm gonna talk to Cory about the evening news.

- He values integrity. - We need to get out ahead of this.

Bradley Jackson isn't gonna find out on Twitter

that we're poaching her partner for evening news.

When are we ready to make the switch with Eric?

- He's ready to close, almost. - Well, close the deal.

We were supposed to have time to ease her into this idea.

You know, this is making my life difficult to fire him, so maybe we don't.

Yelling at a PA isn't exactly the same thing as sexual assault.

I had a boss throw a pineapple at my head when I was a PA, and here I am.

We've heard that story before, Vince. This network needs to clean up its act.

Let me make this simple.

The press release announcing Ray's firing and Eric's move to evening news

is being drafted now,

but we're not gonna release it till everything else is in place.

The timetable has changed

now that somebody has decided to leak the information to the press,

so we have to move expeditiously.

Let's just concentrate on who we're pairing with Bradley.

Stellar. Our short list is down to Mickey and Aaron.

- What the fuck happened to Miguel? - He declined.

He... He declined The Morning Show ?

He wasn't excited about working with Bradley.

Listen, what about keeping Eric on TMS, moving Bradley to evening?

- You know she loves her news hard. -

Okay, should we have the conversation about Bradley

- that I think we're all thinking? - What?