“The Paper” Returns September 9 With Bigger Stories and Newsroom Chaos

Staff members stand among desks in the Toledo Truth Teller newsroom in “The Paper.”

“The Paper” returns to Peacock on September 9, giving viewers one week to catch up before its newsroom opens for a second season. Melvin Gregg and Gbemisola Ikumelo are back in the ensemble, with all new-season episodes arriving together rather than on a weekly release schedule.

The premise keeps its connection to “The Office”: the documentary crew that followed Dunder Mifflin now observes a struggling Midwestern newspaper. Domhnall Gleeson plays editor Ned Sampson, while Sabrina Impacciatore is managing editor Esmeralda Grand. Oscar Nuñez returns as Oscar Martinez, connecting the two workplace worlds on screen.

NBCUniversal’s season synopsis gives the newsroom a more complicated problem than simply proving it can publish. After success at the Ohio Journalism Awards, Ned pursues a local private club and puts the paper at risk. His attraction to reporter Mare, played by Chelsea Frei, adds a separate complication inside the office.

That combination is a promising engine for a workplace comedy: professional ambition and private judgment do not always move at the same speed. A newsroom also gives the ensemble a reason to leave the building, bringing its competing personalities into contact with people who never signed up for the staff meeting.

Peacock’s preview shows that fieldwork getting unruly. One sequence pairs Ikumelo’s Adelola with Eric Rahill’s Travis during a storm-chasing assignment. Gregg returns as Detrick Moore, and the first-look material puts him out reporting as well. These are glimpses of the coming season, not a substitute for watching the finished episodes.

Creators Greg Daniels and Michael Koman have a cast built for more than one comic rhythm. The question for the second season is whether the staff’s growing confidence creates sharper reporting, bigger mistakes—or the kind of collision that makes both entertaining.

For viewers building a fall streaming list, this is a different mood from the suspense in PowerPage’s “Lupin” preview. “The Paper” turns the attention toward deadlines, office relationships and the gap between wanting to do important work and knowing how to do it.

The official trailer below was released in August. Season 1 is already on Peacock; Season 2 arrives Wednesday, September 9. That leaves time to meet the newsroom before the next round of assignments lands.

Watch: “The Paper” Season 2 — Official Trailer (Peacock, August 2026)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0egsFCDTIo