#ThePaper is the hashtag for Peacock’s mockumentary spinoff of #TheOffice, set at the Toledo Truth Teller — a failing Ohio newspaper filmed by the same “invisible” documentary crew that once covered Dunder Mifflin. Season 2 of the Domhnall Gleeson–led comedy dropped all 10 episodes on September 9, 2026 and rocketed to the top of #PeacockStreaming, turning a spinoff many critics had shrugged at into the platform’s biggest scripted hit of the fall.
Quick Facts
- Network: Peacock (Universal Television)
- Premiered: September 2025 (Season 1); September 9, 2026 (Season 2)
- Creators: Greg Daniels and Michael Koman
- Lead: Domhnall Gleeson as Ned Sampson, editor-in-chief
- Status: Renewed and active
Origin
Peacock announced the show as an official spinoff of The Office, produced by Universal Television and executive produced by Greg Daniels — the U.S. Office showrunner — with Michael Koman. The premise picks up the same mockumentary conceit: the anonymous camera crew has left Scranton and now trains its lens on a dying Toledo daily, the Truth Teller. Season 1 launched in September 2025 to mixed reviews, with critics divided on whether it earned its lineage. Rolling Stone called it “a carbon copy of a copy” and TV Guide called it “pleasant but forgettable,” while The Hollywood Reporter argued its first season already surpassed the first seasons of The Office and Parks and Recreation.
The Show
Domhnall Gleeson plays Ned Sampson, a soft-spoken former Softees toilet-paper salesman who takes the editor-in-chief job at the Truth Teller with vague ambitions of restoring its former glory. The ensemble around him spans veteran reporters, a fading advertising desk and hires who barely knew newspapers still existed. Season 2 opens after the Truth Teller’s wins at the Ohio Journalism Awards and follows Ned’s team chasing bigger stories — and stepping on more toes.
Season 2 Success
CBR reported that Season 2 became the number-one streaming show on Peacock after its September 9, 2026 release, a sharper leap than Season 1 had managed. The move to an all-at-once episode drop, up from Season 1’s weekly rollout, matched the show to the modern binge cycle, and critics who had been lukewarm about the first season began reappraising it as a slow-burn workplace comedy rather than an Office knockoff.
Cultural Impact
The Paper landed inside a wider 2020s wave of nostalgia for the U.S. Office — a show whose streaming afterlife on Peacock has repeatedly ranked among the platform’s most-watched titles. By tying itself to the same fictional documentary crew, The Paper turned The Office’s mockumentary conceit into a small cinematic universe, and it planted the format inside a beat — the collapse of local newspapers — that gives the workplace jokes actual stakes. Its Season 2 breakout arrived just as Peacock leaned into originals to lift subscriber numbers ahead of the fall NFL season.
Related Tags
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paper_(2025_TV_series)
- https://www.peacocktv.com/blog/the-paper-season-2-premiere-date-details
- https://www.cbr.com/peacock-the-paper-season-2-streaming-success-september-2026/
- https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/the-paper-review-peacock-office-spinoff-1236355965/
- https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-reviews/the-paper-review-office-spin-off-peacock-1235414659/
- https://www.tvguide.com/news/the-paper-review-the-office-spin-off-peacock/