Apple Paying Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston $1.25M Per Episode for Upcoming Morning Show Drama

Apple is paying Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston "upward of $1.25 million" a piece for each episode of their upcoming morning talk show drama series, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

The show, which is based on Brian Stelter's non-fiction book "Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV" explores the drama-filled lives of the men and women who star on morning talk shows.

anistonwitherspoonshow
Witherspoon and Aniston's $1.25 million salary per episode includes fees for executive producing and points on the show's backend, as both are serving as executive producers on the series. Apple has already ordered 20 episodes of the show, split into two seasons.

Witherspoon's high salary on Apple's new television show drove up the price of her salary on the second season of HBO's "Little Big Lies," for which she will receive $1 million per episode.

One Hollywood agent told The Hollywood Reporter that if HBO matches Apple's price, "it inflates the whole ecosystem of TV actor salaries." HBO programming president Casey Bloys wasn't as concerned, though.

"It's not a shock to anybody that having a second season of an ongoing series is easier to have with those deals in place," HBO programming president Casey Bloys tells THR. "Every outlet has to make their own decisions about economics that make sense for them. I'm not going to shake my fist and say, 'Darn it, Apple!' If that's what made sense for them for that show, God bless."

In addition to the morning show drama, Apple is working on two other TV shows with Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine production company with Witherspoon serving a executive producer. One is "Are You Sleeping," a psychological thriller starring Octavia Spencer, while the other is an untitled comedy series starring Kristen Wiig.

Related Roundup: Apple TV
Buyer's Guide: Apple TV (Don't Buy)

Popular Stories

airpods pro 3 purple

New, Higher End AirPods Pro Coming This Year

Tuesday January 20, 2026 9:05 am PST by
Apple is planning to debut a high-end secondary version of AirPods Pro 3 this year, sitting in the lineup alongside the current model, reports suggest. Back in September 2025, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple is planning to introduce a successor to the AirPods Pro 3 in 2026. This would be somewhat unusual since Apple normally waits around three years to make major...
smaller dynamic island iphone 18 pro Filip Vabrous%CC%8Cek

iPhone 18 Pro Leak: Smaller Dynamic Island, No Top-Left Camera Cutout

Tuesday January 20, 2026 2:34 am PST by
Over the last few months, rumors around the iPhone 18 Pro's front-panel design have been conflicted, with some supply-chain leaks pointing to under-display Face ID, reports suggesting a top-left hole-punch camera, and debate over whether the familiar Dynamic Island will shrink, shift, or disappear entirely. Today, Weibo-based leaker Instant Digital shared new details that appear to clarify the ...
iOS 27 Mock Quick

iOS 27 Will Add These 8 New Features to Your iPhone

Sunday January 18, 2026 3:51 pm PST by
iOS 27 is still many months away, but there are already plenty of rumors about new features that will be included in the software update. The first beta of iOS 27 will be released during WWDC 2026 in June, and the update should be released to all users with a compatible iPhone in September. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that iOS 27 will be similar to Mac OS X Snow Leopard, in the sense...
14 inch MacBook Pro Keyboard

MacBook Pro Buyers Now Facing Up to a Two-Month Wait Ahead of New Models

Sunday January 18, 2026 6:50 pm PST by
MacBook Pro availability is tightening on Apple's online store, with select configurations facing up to a two-month delivery timeframe in the United States. A few 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro configurations with an M4 Pro chip are not facing any shipping delay, but estimated delivery dates for many configurations with an M4 Max chip range from February 6 to February 24 or even later. At...
Apple Logo Spotlight

Apple Expected to Unveil Five All-New Products This Year

Wednesday January 21, 2026 10:54 am PST by
In addition to updating many of its existing products, Apple is expected to unveil five all-new products this year, including a smart home hub, a Face ID doorbell, a MacBook with an A18 Pro chip, a foldable iPhone, and augmented reality glasses. Below, we have recapped rumored features for each product. Smart Home Hub Apple home hub (concept) Apple's long-rumored smart home hub should...

Top Rated Comments

CrystalQuest76 Avatar
105 months ago
While female actors deserve the same pay as a male actor, no actor deserves that kind of money. Lets get a little perspective. Actors don't really do not work that many hours or contribute that much to the product to deserve such high salaries compared to other employees working on the project. There are many people involved in the creation of a show/movie. Most of them work year round, many of them more than 60 hours a week. the majority of the production time, the actors are standing or sitting around waiting for the sets and camera work to be prepared.
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
aaronhead14 Avatar
105 months ago
Apple is so out of touch with what people want.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
avanpelt Avatar
105 months ago
I wish Apple had just stuck to making best-in-class software that runs on great hardware.

I have yet to hear a single person say, "You have to check out this awesome show on Apple Music!" (which sounds like a stupid thing to say, to begin with.) People have told me I have to check out a cool new show on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video more times than I can count, but I've never heard anyone get excited about an Apple-exclusive show. Maybe this will be the show that turns the tide, but I'm not optimistic.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
filmantopia Avatar
105 months ago
Good. These women deserve every cent any male actor would make.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ssmed Avatar
105 months ago
Whilst that is probably the going rate for such things and they are both good actors, my message to Apple is 'please return to being a technology firm with vision and much better quality control. It's good to specialise. Really!'
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DEMinSoCAL Avatar
105 months ago
Good. These women deserve every cent any male actor would make.
What does your statement have to do with the article apart from you chiming in on an unrelated current event? The article says nothing about any male actors. If there are some, how do you know they are being paid the same?

Personally, I don't think it anyone's business how much someone makes, but when they feel they have to make it public, people feel the need to judge. Considering it takes me 10 years to make as much money as each of them will make in a week, I can't say it's deserving. But then neither are sports salaries--9 figure salary for a pitcher on a baseball team?
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)