Great News starts by introducing us to Katie Wendelson. Katie is a 30 year old news producer who is trying to advance in her career. She struggles getting her segment ideas to air and ends up producing puff pieces.
In the opening scene we see Katie talking on the phone with her mom, Carol. It’s clear that these two are close as they discuss everything from The Bachelor to Carol’s friends.
When Katie and Carol attend the funeral of one of Carol’s friends, the priest talks about the importance of following your dreams. Katie takes his message to heart and returns to work determined to cover a lead story. In the pitch meeting she convinces the show’s anchor that since she has seniority over some of the other producers she should get the lead and he agrees.
Katie’s joy quickly turns into disbelief when her mother shows up at the station and tells Katie she wants to be an intern there. Carol explains that she too was inspired by the priest’s sermon and wants to follow her dreams and is going back to school. Carol gets the internship, despite Katie’s disapproval.
Afraid that her mother will embarrass her at work, Katie decides to try to get her fired. In the process of trying to get her fired Katie realizes that her mom actually has her back and it could be a benefit to have her at work. Katie gets inspired to ditch the story she was assigned and decides to produce a lead story about baby boomers rejoining the workforce.
Carol ends up quitting the internship once she realizes that Katie tried to get her fired. Katie begs her to re-consider and Carol returns as an intern.
