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Rooster (TV series)
Rooster is an American comedy series created by Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses, and starring Steve Carell. It premiered on March 8, 2026, on HBO.
| Rooster |
|---|
| Comedy |
| Bill LawrenceMatt Tarses |
| .mw-parser-output .plainlist ol,.mw-parser-output .plainlist ul{line-height:inherit;list-style:none;margin:0;padding:0}.mw-parser-output .plainlist ol li,.mw-parser-output .plainlist ul li{margin-bottom:0} |
| Steve Carell |
| Danielle Deadwyler |
| Phil Dunster |
| Charly Clive |
| Lauren Tsai |
| John C. McGinley |
| Andrew Watt |
| "I Played the Fool" by Michael Stipe and Andrew Watt |
| United States |
| English |
| 1 |
| 5 |
| Bill Lawrence |
| Matt Tarses |
| Jeff Ingold |
| Liza Katzer |
| Steve Carell |
| Jonathan Krisel |
| Barbie Adler |
| Annie Mebane |
| David Stassen |
| Anthony King |
| David Hyman |
| Blake McClure |
| Ali Greer |
| Matthew Freund |
| 30–34 minutes |
| Two Soups Productions |
| Doozer Productions |
| Warner Bros. Television |
| HBO |
| March 8, 2026 (2026-03-08) –present |
Rooster is an American comedy series created by Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses, and starring Steve Carell. It premiered on March 8, 2026, on HBO.
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Steve Carell as Greg Russo
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Danielle Deadwyler as Dylan Shepard
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Phil Dunster as Archie, Katie's estranged husband who left her for a graduate student
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Charly Clive as Katie Russo, Greg's daughter
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Lauren Tsai as Sunny, the graduate student for whom Archie left Katie
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John C. McGinley as Walter Mann, Ludlow College's president
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Annie Mumolo as Cristle, Walter's executive assistant
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Rory Scovel as Officer Donnie Mullins
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Robby Hoffman as Mo, Sunny's roommate
In addition, Maximo Salas co-stars as Tommy Newton, a student who befriends Greg.
| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | Prod.code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Release the Brown Fat" | Jonathan Krisel | Bill Lawrence & Matt Tarses | March 8, 2026 (2026-03-08) | T12.20101 | |
| Greg Russo is a middle-aged author of a series of commercially popular beach read novels about a private investigator named Rooster. He arrives at Ludlow College, a liberal arts college in New England, to present a talk on his books, organized by English professor Dylan Shepard. His real reason for coming to Ludlow is to check on his daughter Katie, an art professor at the college, whose husband and fellow professor Archie has recently left her for a graduate student named Sunny. Katie assures her father that everything is fine, but he encourages her to talk to Archie. On his first night at Ludlow, Greg and Dylan share a drink at the local inn and reminisce about their lives. He offers to walk her home, but gently rebuffs her advances. The next day, Katie goes to Archie's home and learns that Sunny is pregnant; after forcing Archie out, Katie burns his most prized possession—a first-edition copy of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace—in the fireplace, only for the fire to go out of control and burn Archie's house down. When Greg arrives at the scene, Katie refuses to deny her involvement in causing the fire. | |||||
| "Trousers" | Jonathan Krisel | Annie Mebane | March 15, 2026 (2026-03-15) | T12.20102 | |
| After Katie admits to having caused the fire and deliberately burning Archie's copy of War and Peace, her job gets placed in jeopardy. Katie decides to resign from her teaching position at Ludlow, but Greg tries to convince her otherwise. He is able to persuade Walter Mann, the college's eccentric president, to get Katie her job back on the condition that she writes a letter explaining her reasoning for the fire and that he accept a position as a writer-in-residence for the rest of the semester; Greg reluctantly agrees. Dylan attempts to get The Ludlow Review, the college's student writing publication, two issues a year but finds out that the Review is discontinuing its print edition due to budgetary cuts. She runs into Greg at a local diner, who apologizes for the previous night and buys her breakfast. Katie accidentally slips to Greg about Sunny's pregnancy; furious, Greg confronts Archie in his hotel room while he is conducting a televised interview for the BBC. The confrontation quickly turns physical, and a disgraced Archie moves into Sunny's apartment. Greg bids farewell to Katie and tells her that he will see her again that upcoming Monday. | |||||
| "White Whale" | Zach Braff | David Stassen | March 22, 2026 (2026-03-22) | T12.20103 | |
| Greg starts his first full day as a writer-in-residence at Ludlow. Since he never went to college and is nervous about teaching at a prestigious institution, he meticulously plans each class out in advance, which Katie tries to discourage. At his first class, Greg fails to endear himself to his students and lands in hot water with the school's disciplinary board when he calls a female student a "white whale". After complaining about the college's dean, Vincent Riggs, to Walt and learning that Riggs has retaliated against her, Dylan visits Riggs in his office only for him to suffer a near-fatal heart attack. Due to Riggs' injury, Dylan is named interim dean of faculty in his absence. Greg shows up to his second class late and decides to forgo the lesson plans, instead going for a spontaneous show of vulnerability that wins his students over. That night, he attends a hockey game he intended to go with Katie, but learns that she has decided to spend time with her TA and her friends instead. Dylan shows up at the game and tells Greg to go home if he hates being there so much; Greg is then shown at his new home, alone and tossing coins into a jar. | |||||
| "Angry, Like An Angry Person" | Zach Braff | Barbie Adler | March 29, 2026 (2026-03-29) | T12.20104 | |
| "Mr. Razzles" | Oz Rodriguez | Genevieve Aniello | April 5, 2026 (2026-04-05) | T12.20105 |
The ten-part series is written and created by Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses and received a straight-to-series order from HBO in 2024. The cast is led by Steve Carell who is also an executive producer alongside Lawrence, Tarses, Jeff Ingold, Liza Katzer, Jonathan Krisel, Barbie Adler, Annie Mebane, David Stassen and Anthony King. It is produced by Warner Bros. Television and Doozer Productions.
Phil Dunster joined the cast in November 2024, with Charly Clive joining the cast as Carell's daughter the following month. In February 2025, Danielle Deadwyler, Lauren Tsai and John C. McGinley joined the cast. In June 2025, Annie Mumolo and Connie Britton joined the cast in recurring roles. In July 2025, Robby Hoffman and Scott MacArthur joined the cast in recurring roles.
Principal photography for Rooster began in June 2025 at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California which served as Ludlow College. Exteriors were filmed at the University of the Pacific over the course of two weeks. Looking to emulate an elite East Coast liberal arts school, co-creator Matt Tarses originally envisioned shooting Rooster at his alma mater Williams College in Massachusetts. However, the studio had approved shooting interiors in Los Angeles so they needed to find a college within driving distance of Los Angeles. Extras during the university shoot had to wear autumnal clothing in 100°F / 37°C heat. Additional footage for Ludlow College was shot at Occidental College and the University of Southern California. Studio filming for interiors took place at Warner Bros. Studios Burbank. Principal photography wrapped in August 2025.
The series premiered on HBO on March 8, 2026.
The series holds an 89% approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 44 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Rooster nestles in with humor and heart thanks to Steve Carell's soothing performance and Danielle Deadwyler's exuberant support, leading Bill Lawrence's kind-spirited, good-time new series to lovely heights." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 67 out of 100 based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable".
The series became the most watched comedy premiere on HBO in the U.S. in over a decade. Rooster drew 2.4 million viewers in the U.S. across platforms in its first three days of availability.
- Official website
- Rooster at IMDb
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