The Morning Show: Mindy Kaling Attempts to Poach an Anchor from Jennifer Aniston's Rival Network
Mindy Kaling‘s guest arc on The Morning Show is putting her at odds with Jennifer Aniston‘s character.
In PEOPLE’s exclusive sneak peek at episode 5 of the Apple TV+ series, debuting Friday, Kaling’s character Audra — an anchor at a rival network who was first introduced in episode 2 — attempts to poach Daniel (Desean Terry), one of Alex Levy’s (Aniston) junior anchors. The move comes in the wake of Alex’s bombshell decision to name Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon), a local field reporter, her new permanent co-host on the a.m. news program, a job Daniel had hoped to get.
“You’re too talented,” Audra tells him. “You’re too talented to be waiting around for some white folks to play chess to decide your future.”
“It is good to see you, Audra,” Daniel says with a chuckle.
“What I was getting at was that there is something that I would like to discuss with you,” she hints. “Preferably not in an environment that is teeming with TMS overlords.”
“Look, TMS has been my home for a long time,” he says. “And I don’t think my work here is done just yet.”
“Do you feel appreciated?” Audra asks.
“I feel motivated,” he offers.
“Okay,” she replies. “Keep telling yourself that. Come talk to me.”
RELATED: Mindy Kaling Responds to TV Academy About Nearly Getting Snubbed for The Office Producer Credit
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Witherspoon, who executive produces the series with Aniston, explained how Kaling’s guest spot came to be.
“We talk all the time,” Witherspoon said of her relationship with Kaling. “My producing partner had worked on The Mindy Project and we’re both really close with Mindy, and I did A Wrinkle in Time with Mindy, and then the part was just perfect for her. We were like, ‘Would you really do this?’ And she was like, ‘Yeah, that sounds like so much fun!’ So she came and played and gave us some of the greatest one-liners.”
“It gets better and better,” Witherspoon teased. “Wait till episode 5, it’s so good. She’s sort of Jen’s foil.”
New episodes of The Morning Show debut every Friday on Apple TV+.
