'The Morning Show' Season 2: Time Jump & 'Three Months Earlier' Moment Explained

The season two premiere of The Morning Show is now streaming on Apple TV+ and there’s a time jump that might have some viewers confused, so let’s clear some things up.

This post will contain minor spoilers for the season premiere, so beware of reading any further if you don’t want to know what happens.

Click inside for the explanation…

Season two kicks off exactly where season one ended, when Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) and Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) have just gone off the air after their impromptu takeover of The Morning Show to expose UBA president Fred Micklen for his knowledge of the sexual misconduct in the workplace and for creating a toxic culture.

We see Alex rush out of the building while Bradley tells her that they need to stick together. The next scene shows that Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) is being fired by the UBA board of directors for allowing Alex and Bradley to pull off their stunt.

The credits then roll and the next scene just shows sweeping images of New York City looking completely empty. A title card then says “three months earlier” and cuts to Bradley performing a musical number with her new Morning Show co-host Eric Nomani (Hasan Minhaj).

So, what is the timeline here?

The “three months earlier” mention is referring to the sweeping aerial images of NYC, not to the scene before the credits.

The musical number is being performed on December 30, 2019, leading up to the New Year’s Eve coverage in Times Square. That means that images of New York City were taken in March 2020, right after COVID-19 struck the city. At the start of the pandemic and the quarantine, the New York streets were empty while everyone stayed home amid the uncertainty of the pandemic.

We eventually learn that the events of season two take place around seven months after the on-air blowup at The Morning Show, which led to Alex’s departure from the series.

Want to know what else happens on the show? Watch now on Apple TV+!

The Morning Show director Mimi Leder recently told THR that when the New York City streets were empty at the start of the lockdown, she sent a crew out to capture the images, even though she didn’t know what they’d use them for.

“We had no idea what we were going to use them for; there wasn’t a script that dictated it. We did it and then we put it in the script and started the show,” she said. “It was important to start the show there, because we know where we’re headed. It’s eerie as hell. And putting the Dean Martin song to it, I thought, was kind of a love letter to New York: ‘Return to me; please come back. Let the world come back.’”

Jennifer and Reese recently revealed their dream guest star for the series.