It's been 13 years since Friends ended its ridiculously successful run on NBC, which means it's been 13 years since star Jennifer Aniston has made regular primetime appearances on the small screen. That drought could absolutely be coming to an end soon, as Aniston is attached to return to TV comedy for a co-starring role with her former TV sister, Reese Witherspoon. But we probably shouldn't expect to see it showing up on Friends' former home.
This new and soon-to-be-fought-over project doesn't currently have a title just yet, though it might as well be called The Show With Jennifer Aniston And Reese Witherspoon In It. At this point, the brief description is about as basic as it gets, but the show would feature Aniston and Witherspoon within a story set in the world of morning TV shows, with New York itself playing heavily into things as a location. It's possible the narrative is centered on two or more competing morning shows, or possibly just one network affiliate's entire line of morning shows. Or...some third option.
The reason why NBC execs shouldn't place their bets on getting Jennifer Aniston back is because the untitled new comedy is likely set to completely bypass the broadcast networks altogether, according to THR. Reese Witherspoon, who will executive produce through her Hello Sunshine imprint, is riding an Emmy-nominated high point in her small screen career with the HBO perhaps-limited drama Big Little Lies, and this new project is likely going to catch the attention of not only HBO, but also Starz, Netflix, Amazon and more premium cable and streaming avenues. You can just hear the money falling out of people's pockets.
Michael Ellenberg, the former head of drama programming at HBO, is the person spearheading this project through his recently established Media Res production company. Interestingly, the script is being drafted by Jay Carson, the former political advisor and strategist who stepped into the entertainment world as a political consultant and supervising producer for Netflix's House of Cards. Carson is quite familiar with New York City, so It'll be interesting to see how he fares at taking on a scripted comedy.
Nothing is set in stone, mind you, as all the details are being worked out. But Jennifer Aniston has, in the recent past, sounded very agreeable to joining a TV show in the future, saying it's "where the quality is." (Although she is definitely not about making another Friends show happen.) And Reese Witherspoon, who played Rachel's sibling Jill Green on Friends, was excellent earlier this year in Big Little Lies, which super-recently started slowly heading to a potential second season. It's unclear if this new project would hinder the established series' future, but it would likely be a while before anything happened with Big Little Lies anyway, considering there's no more source material to go with.
Would you guys be excited to see Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon teaming up on TV again, but in a much large capacity? Let us know, and don't forget to head to our summer TV schedule to see everything that's definitely hitting the small screen soon.
