Sports-based TV shows have become a popular genre in Hollywood, after Apple TV's "Ted Lasso" was a hit with critics and audiences alike.
Now, Hulu is looking for their own "Ted Lasso" with the new show, "Chad Powers," starring Glen Powell as a college football quarterback. The series is based off an Eli Manning skit and features many faces familiar to sports fans who watch college football every Saturday.
Powell himself is a Texas Longhorns fan, and he was able to pick the Manning brothers' brains to learn how to play quarterback. Here's what to know about the new show.
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Who is Chad Powers?
Chad Powers is a fictional character, first played by Eli Manning in a skit and now the role will be reprised by Glen Powell in the Hulu series.
Is Chad Powers a real person?
Chad Powers is not a real person. Eli Manning and Omaha Productions created the character as part of a comedy skit, which saw Manning participate in Penn State walk-on tryouts while wearing a disguise.
What is Chad Powers about?
"Chad Powers" is a TV show on Hulu about a former college quarterback who returns to college in disguise to play football again. Actor Glen Powell plays Russ Holliday, who once starred at the University of Oregon but decides to walk-on to a new football team under the name Chad Powers.
Powell also serves as a co-creator of the show. Here is the official tagline for "Chad Powers:"
"Eight years after an unforgivable mistake nukes his promising college football career, hotshot quarterback Russ Holliday tries to resurrect his dreams by disguising himself as Chad Powers -- a talented oddball who walks on to the struggling South Georgia Catfish."
Eli Manning Chad Powers skit video
The "Chad Powers" TV show is based off of a video that Eli Manning did for "Eli's Places" with Omaha Production. Manning put on a disguise and tried out for the Penn State football team as a walk-on.
Only head coach James Franklin new that Manning was trying out for the team, as everyone else at the tryout was surprised.
Eli Manning walk-on tryout at Penn State
In a video for Omaha Productions, Eli Manning disguised himself as Chad Powers to participate in a Penn State walk-on tryout. Manning played the Chad Powers character first, and showed off his comedic skills in the process.
"I was slinging it, Chad could throw it," Manning said on "The Tonight Show." "He would've made the team, but he's ineligible."
Glen Powell as Chad Powers
As the star of the show, Glen Powell put in a lot of work to try and make it as realistic as possible. And with the Manning brothers as executive producers, they were able to influence Powell's character.
Powell leaned on both Peyton and Eli Manning to understand how to look and throw like a quarterback.
"You know what a real quarterback does and you know a quarterback doesn't," Powell said on Good Morning America. "So the fact that I have these guys as my coach, it's a nice little lifesaver."
Powell stressed that it was important for him to have the show look like real-life football and not just actors playing athletes. He even worked with Patrick Mahomes' quarterback coach to get everything right, although Peyton and Eli had the final say.
"The best thing about it is I had both of those guys as my quarterback coaches," "As far as my form and the way that I'm interacting with my line, and my offense, and reading the defense, all that stuff, they put such a fine eye on it."
Chad Powers cast
Here is a list of the actors who will star in "Chad Powers:"
- Glen Powell as Chad Powers
- Steve Zahn
- Toby Huss
- Perry Matfield
- Clayne Crawford
- Wynn Everett
- Colton Ryan
- Frankie A. Rodriguez
- Xavier Mills
- Quentin Plair
- Keese Wilson
Additionally, the show features several notable faces to sports fans like Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Marty Smith, playing themselves.