After Drawing 14M Viewers, NBC’s Brilliant Hit Series Officially Returns Monday

Amanda M. Castro is a Network TV writer at Collider and a New York–based journalist whose work has appeared in Newsweek, where she is an Associate Editor, and The U.S. Sun, where she previously served as a Senior Consumer Reporter.

She specializes in network television coverage, delivering sharp, thoughtful analysis of long-running procedural hits and ambitious new dramas across broadcast TV. At Collider, Amanda explores character arcs, storytelling trends, and the cultural impact of network series that keep audiences tuning in week after week.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Amanda is bilingual and holds a degree in Communication, Film, and Media Studies from the University of New Haven.

At one point, NBC seemed to have lost its magic in sitcoms. The company that brought you The Office, Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock, and The Good Place spent years trying to find another comedy to fill that corner of the television landscape. Then Tracy Morgan showed up with a documentary crew, a gambling scandal, and a huge collection of memorabilia depicting his life; he didn’t leave the network for other options.

The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins premiered in January 2026 and quickly became one of the year’s best sitcoms. Created by Robert Carlock and Sam Means, the sitcom follows Reggie Dinkins (Morgan), a successful New York Jets player who lost everything because of a gambling scandal. Years later, he tries to restore his reputation and hopes to win back the good graces of fans, his family, and, if possible, the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Meanwhile, Arthur Tobin (Daniel Radcliffe), a disgraced documentary filmmaker, films that comeback attempt because he needs a career resurrection of his own.

Reggie wants a flattering portrait that will restore his image, and at least initially, Arthur wants to make something more honest. Naturally, putting those two men in the same room is less a recipe for a thoughtful documentary than a recipe for disaster. That disaster turned out to be a huge success for NBC, with the sitcom’s January premiere drawing more than 14 million viewers across platforms. Now, with Season 2 returning Monday, November 2, Reggie is getting another shot at a comeback, whether he deserves one or not.

‘The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins’ Makes the Mockumentary Feel Fresh Again

The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins is primarily a sports comedy that masquerades as a mockumentary, following a man who desperately tries to control his own story. Reggie contacts Arthur and has him make a documentary about his life and career, hoping the outcome will convince people he deserves a chance at a comeback.

Four of the largest communities on the planet, and four completely
different reasons to belong to one. Here is yours, what it would give you, and the argument you
would be having within a week.

You belong to the fandom that is really about comfort. Hogwarts
works on people because it is a place rather than a plot, and the pull is not the wizard war
so much as the corridors, the food, the weather and the sense that somebody is expecting
you.

• You are drawn to belonging, which is why this fandom sorted itself into houses within
  about five minutes and has never stopped.
• This is the most social of the four, and the one most likely to know which type every
  single person in your life would be.
• The books are built to be reread rather than analysed, and rereading is exactly what you
  do with things you love.
• The new HBO series is bringing the whole thing back one book at a time, which means the
  arguments are about to start all over again.

You belong to the deepest fandom on this list, the one where
somebody has always read further than you and is quietly delighted to say so. Middle-earth
rewards patience more than any other world in popular culture.

• You like the sense that the story you are reading is only the visible part of something
  enormous, which is precisely how Tolkien built it.
• This fandom takes adaptation seriously to a degree that other fandoms find slightly
  alarming, and it has good reasons for that.
• Your favourite thing about the books is probably the bit that is not action at all,
  which is the walking, the songs and the long goodbyes.
• Nobody here thinks heroism belongs to the powerful, and the whole story exists to make
  that argument.

You belong to the loudest and largest tent of the four, the one
where three generations are all watching the same thing and none of them agree about any of
it. That disagreement is not a flaw in this fandom, it is the main activity.

• You want something you can share with absolutely everybody, from a six year old to a
  grandparent, and this is the only one on the list that really does that.
• Nobody argues like Star Wars fans argue, and the argument has been running since roughly
  1980 with no sign of resolution.
• The pull here is sensory before it is narrative, since it is the sound design, the score
  and the look of a used and dented galaxy.
• You would be first in the queue, in costume, with strong opinions and a genuinely good
  time.

You belong to the thinking fandom, the one that turns up for the
argument rather than the explosion. Trek has always been a series of ethical problems in
space, and the people who love it love being asked what they would have done.

• You are an optimist in a way that is currently unfashionable, and this is the only major
  franchise still willing to say the future might be better.
• The best episodes are the ones where nobody fires anything, which is a sentence that
  makes perfect sense to this fandom and to nobody else.
• Starfleet Academy brought the franchise back to a classroom in 2026, which is
  appropriate, because Trek has always been a bit of a seminar.
• You would want the conversation afterwards more than the episode itself, and here you
  will always find somebody willing to have it.

The irony is that Reggie isn’t very interested in being objectively documented. He wants six episodes of hero worship, preferably with flattering angles and very little discussion of the whole gambling scandal that ended his NFL career. Arthur, meanwhile, is supposed to be the impartial filmmaker, but his own career implosion leaves him with plenty of baggage.

The documentary setup also gives the sitcom a useful excuse to let its characters behave as though they have known one another forever. Erika Alexander plays Monica, Reggie’s ex-wife and business manager, who is arguably more invested in rebuilding his career than he is. Bobby Moynihan plays Rusty, Reggie’s former teammate and best friend, while Precious Way plays Brina, Reggie’s fiancée. Jalyn Hall rounds out the central family dynamic as Carmelo, Reggie and Monica’s teenage son.

Tracy Morgan Finally Has a Sitcom Built Around His Particular Strengths

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    Image via NBC</figure>

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    Image via NBC, Scott Gries</figure>