People got the scoop all about the Steve Carell comedy coming to HBO. It is entitled ROOSTER and is said to premiere in March of 2026 with ten episodes. We tipped you off that it was a project in the works a while ago, but then the project went quiet. It seems the co-showrunners and executive producers, Bill Lawrence (Shrinking, Ted Lasso, Scrubs) and Matt Tarses (Scrubs), were hard at work with the cast & crew to get this comedy moving. It appears it will be a highlight for HBO in early 2026.
According to the source material, Steve Carell stars as Greg Russo, an acclaimed fiction author and father of an adult daughter, Katie, played by Charly Clive. Katie, a college professor, has some personal issues her father is out to help her with, and along the way, he takes a look at his own life. The creators used the word “reinvention.” Is this reinvention going to make him strut like an all-proud rooster, perhaps? No, I’m overthinking it. The show title refers to Russo’s best fictional character. I like my thought better. Anyway.
Tarses tells People, “He’s always good, and the shows are always good. But I think this is the first time in a minute where he’s been really funny again and doing a straight comedy. I mean, there’s heart in this too, don’t get me wrong, but I’m excited for people to see him be really funny.” Here he is with co-star John C. McGinley.
Amongst great praise for Carell’s comedic skills, the article offers this good quote about the series from Lawrence, “The core relationship at the center is a father-daughter. How do you navigate life when your kid doesn’t have to listen to you anymore, and they’re dealing with adult problems? You might have experienced those problems before, and you might’ve inflicted them on your kid by the example you gave them.” It all sounds like a good, solid base for a fun series. Rounding out the cast are Danielle Deadwyler (Dylan Shepard), Phil Dunster (Archie Bates), John C. McGinley (Walter Mann), and Lauren Tsai (Sunny Salewski).
We leave you with one more quote from Tarses, setting up the show, and another People pic is of Carell and Clive as Greg and Katie Russo. Seek out the link at the top to see some of the other first-look photos that include Deadwyler and Dunster.
Tarses says, “It’s about how we can reinvent ourselves in the later parts of our lives, how we get stuck thinking we’re this one person, and that doesn’t have to be true. So college, for all of us, was this time, I think, where we invented ourselves, and this guy gets a chance to go back and sort of do that again.”
We will keep you posted on ROOSTER!
