Jon Hamm wakes up "The Morning Show" as a "tech titan" in action

The new trailer for the Apple TV+ hit shows the "Mad Men" star in a different role, but still trying to rule media

By Melanie McFarland

Senior Critic

Published July 27, 2023 10:00AM (EDT)

Jon Hamm in "The Morning Show" (Apple TV+)
Jon Hamm in "The Morning Show" (Apple TV+)

Looks like AppleTV+ is giving Jon Hamm juicy, central placement on the upcoming season of "The Morning Show" and its menu of backstabbing media power players.

A newly released trailer for Season 3 provides a first glimpse at Hamm's Paul Marks making his grand entrance to what seems to be a cocktail party from a helicopter. The trailer implies that his character Paul Marks isn't merely competition for Billy Crudup's top UBA network executive Cory Ellison or network president Stella Bak (Greta Lee).

As "a tech titan [who] takes an interest in UBA," Marks represents an existential crisis for the company and the news business. He also catches the eye of Jennifer Aniston's "Morning Show" co-anchor Alex Levy, which can't be great for her tenuous and still healing bond with Reese Witherspoon's Bradley Jackson.

Hamm joins "The Morning Show" following an Apple TV+ ad campaign in which he mournfully wallows in the realization that every major star shows up on the streaming service but him. Casting him in its tentpole series playfully addresses that "oversight."

It's a fitting small screen return for an Emmy winner best known as "Mad Men" ad executive Don Draper and Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne on "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt."

Hamm also appears in the second season of Prime Video's "Good Omens," which streams Friday, July 28, and in the upcoming fifth season of FX's "Fargo." 

The third season of "The Morning Show" also introduces Nicole Beharie's Christina Hunter as a new anchor, with Julianna Margulies, Natalie Morales, Stephen Fry and Tig Notaro returning. 

The two-episode season premiere streams Wednesday, Sept. 13.


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