HBO has just handed comedy fans the gift they didn’t know they needed: Rooster, a 10-episode series starring and executive-produced by Steve Carell, set to premiere in March 2026 on HBO and Max. Created by Ted Lasso mastermind Bill Lawrence and Scrubs veteran Matt Tarses, the show marks Carell’s long-awaited return to premium cable after his Emmy-nominated run on The Office and the critically adored The Patient. First-look images released December 9, 2025, show Carell sporting salt-and-pepper scruff and a sheepish grin next to rising British star Charly Clive (Pure), instantly igniting anticipation for what early insiders are calling “the smartest, funniest, most emotionally devastating comedy since Ted Lasso.”

HBO has just handed comedy fans the gift they didn’t know they needed: Rooster, a 10-episode series starring and executive-produced by Steve Carell, set to premiere in March 2026 on HBO and Max. Created by Ted Lasso mastermind Bill Lawrence and Scrubs veteran Matt Tarses, the show marks Carell’s long-awaited return to premium cable after his Emmy-nominated run on The Office and the critically adored The Patient. First-look images released December 9, 2025, show Carell sporting salt-and-pepper scruff and a sheepish grin next to rising British star Charly Clive (Pure), instantly igniting anticipation for what early insiders are calling “the smartest, funniest, most emotionally devastating comedy since Ted Lasso.”

Set on the picturesque campus of fictional Amherst-like Hawthorne University, Rooster centers on Jack Rooster (Carell), a once-celebrated middle-aged author whose career peaked with a 1990s bestseller now gathering dust on airport shelves. When his estranged daughter Ellie (Clive), a brilliant but prickly tenure-track literature professor, reluctantly invites him to campus for a guest lecture series, Jack leaps at the chance to reconnect—only to discover Ellie wants nothing to do with the father who abandoned her for book tours and bad marriages. What follows is a deliciously awkward, profoundly moving comedy about second chances, generational warfare, and the mortifying ordeal of being known by the one person who remembers every mistake you ever made.

The supporting cast is stacked: Danielle Deadwyler (Till, The Harder They Fall) as the university’s no-nonsense dean who smells Jack’s desperation from a mile away; Phil Dunster (Ted Lasso’s Jamie Tartt) as Ellie’s charming but suspiciously perfect colleague; John C. McGinley as Jack’s long-suffering agent; and Lauren Tsai as a whip-smart grad student who becomes Jack’s unlikely confidante. Lawrence and Tarses promise “the emotional honesty of Shrinking with the rapid-fire wit of Scrubs,” and early footage delivers: Carell’s Jack delivering a disastrous lecture while Ellie live-tweets his clichés from the front row, followed by a father-daughter screaming match in the campus library that ends with both of them laughing through tears.

Critics who’ve seen the first four episodes are already predicting awards season dominance. “Carell hasn’t been this raw since Foxcatcher,” wrote Variety, “but here the weapon is laughter instead of tragedy.” The Hollywood Reporter called it “a comedy that sneaks up and breaks your heart in the best way.”

With a March 2026 drop, Rooster is perfectly timed to dominate spring viewing. Ten episodes, no filler, and a premise that promises to make you laugh, cry, and call your own complicated parent by the finale.

Mark your calendars, clear your weekends, and prepare to fall in love with the most dysfunctional father-daughter duo since Gilmore Girls—only with way more swearing and existential dread.

Rooster — coming to HBO and Max March 2026. The bell’s about to ring.

Set on the picturesque campus of fictional Amherst-like Hawthorne University, Rooster centers on Jack Rooster (Carell), a once-celebrated middle-aged author whose career peaked with a 1990s bestseller now gathering dust on airport shelves. When his estranged daughter Ellie (Clive), a brilliant but prickly tenure-track literature professor, reluctantly invites him to campus for a guest lecture series, Jack leaps at the chance to reconnect—only to discover Ellie wants nothing to do with the father who abandoned her for book tours and bad marriages. What follows is a deliciously awkward, profoundly moving comedy about second chances, generational warfare, and the mortifying ordeal of being known by the one person who remembers every mistake you ever made.

The supporting cast is stacked: Danielle Deadwyler (Till, The Harder They Fall) as the university’s no-nonsense dean who smells Jack’s desperation from a mile away; Phil Dunster (Ted Lasso’s Jamie Tartt) as Ellie’s charming but suspiciously perfect colleague; John C. McGinley as Jack’s long-suffering agent; and Lauren Tsai as a whip-smart grad student who becomes Jack’s unlikely confidante. Lawrence and Tarses promise “the emotional honesty of Shrinking with the rapid-fire wit of Scrubs,” and early footage delivers: Carell’s Jack delivering a disastrous lecture while Ellie live-tweets his clichés from the front row, followed by a father-daughter screaming match in the campus library that ends with both of them laughing through tears.

Critics who’ve seen the first four episodes are already predicting awards season dominance. “Carell hasn’t been this raw since Foxcatcher,” wrote Variety, “but here the weapon is laughter instead of tragedy.” The Hollywood Reporter called it “a comedy that sneaks up and breaks your heart in the best way.”

With a March 2026 drop, Rooster is perfectly timed to dominate spring viewing. Ten episodes, no filler, and a premise that promises to make you laugh, cry, and call your own complicated parent by the finale.

Mark your calendars, clear your weekends, and prepare to fall in love with the most dysfunctional father-daughter duo since Gilmore Girls—only with way more swearing and existential dread.

Rooster — coming to HBO and Max March 2026. The bell’s about to ring.