What's the best TV show about journalism?

The Newsroom is the most famous, though critics found it preachy; The Hour is the more underrated pick. The Wire Season 5 is the most realistic about a struggling newspaper.

Best Series About Journalism and Media

In short: For newsroom drama, The Newsroom or The Hour. For morning-TV scandal, The Morning Show. For media empires, Succession. For a newspaper in decline, The Wire Season 5. For British newspaper rivalry, Press. For a reporter at the centre of a crime story, Sharp Objects.

A journalist at a cluttered newsroom desk under a corkboard of articles linked with red string. — Real institutional pressure, not simplified heroism.

Get series picks based on this article

Want a smart drama for tonight? Get series picks matched to your mood.

Get series picksPrefer to answer a few questions? Take the 8-question series quiz →

Newsrooms

The Newsroom (HBO, 2012-2014, 3 seasons). Jeff Daniels's anchor Will McAvoy decides to do the news properly, covering real stories from the recent past. Sorkin's speeches are thrilling or sanctimonious depending on your taste.

The Hour (BBC Two, 2011-2012, 2 series). Ben Whishaw, Romola Garai and Dominic West launch a BBC current-affairs programme in 1956 while uncovering a conspiracy. Stylish and smart; cancelled too soon.

Press (BBC One, 2018, 6 episodes). Mike Bartlett's drama about rival newspapers, one idealistic broadsheet and one ruthless tabloid, on the same London street.

Television and empires

The Morning Show (Apple TV, 2019 onward). Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon run a network breakfast show after Steve Carell's co-anchor is fired over sexual misconduct. Glossy, messy and often gripping.

Succession (HBO, 2018-2023, 4 seasons). Waystar Royco owns cable news, newspapers and theme parks, and the Roys' fights over it show how news gets bent by power and money.

Reporters on the case

The Wire, Season 5 (HBO, 2008). David Simon, a former Baltimore Sun reporter, shows cuts, careerism and a fabricating journalist inside the paper. Best after watching the earlier seasons.

Sharp Objects (HBO, 2018, 8 episodes). Amy Adams's reporter Camille returns to her Missouri hometown to cover two girls' murders and confronts her own past.

Our verdict

For a binge, The Morning Show. For something better than its fame, The Hour.

Frequently asked questions

Is The Morning Show based on a true story? It's fiction, but inspired by Brian Stelter's book Top of the Morning about rivalries in US breakfast TV, and its first season echoes real #MeToo scandals.

What about journalism movies? For films, see Spotlight, All the President's Men and She Said. This list sticks to series.

Want a series for tonight?

Our series quiz can match one to your mood, with season counts for each pick.