Half of Season 1 of Chad Powers has dropped on Hulu, and it's clear it's Glen Powell's newest hit—glowing reviews, the show already sitting at No. 1 on the platform, and its presence being felt across pop culture. The series, a surreal football comedy about disguise, redemption, and reinvention, has become a social-media fixation and a critical curiosity—the rare sports-adjacent show that's found an audience far beyond the field.

A Reinvention Born of Viral Impulse

The genesis of Chad Powers is rooted not in a writers' room but in a prank. In a 2022 segment for Eli's Places, Eli Manning donned a wig, a prosthetic nose, and a fake mustache to pose as "Chad Powers," a would-be walk-on at Penn State. The footage of the two-time Super Bowl champion sprinting through drills and shouting "Think fast, run fast!" went viral overnight, racking up more than 17 million views and inspiring the kind of cultural shorthand Hollywood notices. The bit worked not simply because it was funny, but because it revealed something endearing—a legendary quarterback willing to look ridiculous.

That spirit had already been nurtured by Omaha Productions, the multimedia company co-founded in 2020 by legendary QB Peyton Manning and veteran media executive Jamie Horowitz. Working alongside NFL Films, Omaha produced the original Chad Powers segment for Eli's Places, staging the Penn State tryout that would become a viral phenomenon. When the clip exploded online, Omaha's team quickly recognized they might have more than a prank—they had a character. For a company known for blending humor and heart in projects like ESPN2's ManningCast, the Peyton's Places franchise, and Netflix's Quarterback, the viral success was proof that its formula could extend into scripted storytelling. What began as an unscripted stunt now looked like the seed of Omaha's first fully developed television series.

When Hulu green-lit the project in early 2024, it marked both a creative gamble and a corporate evolution. Omaha, backed by Disney's 20th Television and investors such as Peter Chernin and Patrick Whitesell, was stepping onto a field long dominated by established studios.

"You want the first one to feel fully in line with your brand values, and this one was pitch perfect for us," Jamie Horowitz, the president and co-founder of Omaha Productions, told The New York Times about entering scripted programming. "It's self-aware comedy with a real dose of heart."

Powell's partnership with Omaha hasn't ended with Chad Powers. In a sign of a deepening collaboration, he appeared on ESPN2's ManningCast on Monday night—trading easy banter with Peyton and Eli—and then turned up two days later on Eli's Places, revisiting the same football fields that inspired the original sketch. It's a cross-pollination that feels deliberate: a movie star weaving himself into the Mannings' expanding media universe, and a production company embracing scripted storytelling without abandoning its roots in live sports and unscripted comedy.

Behind the Masks

At its core, Chad Powers is a story about deception—and the strange liberation that can come with it. Powell plays Russ Holliday, once a star college quarterback whose career imploded after a scandal. Years later, desperate for another shot, he disguises himself as "Chad Powers," a balding, buck-toothed, thirty-something walk-on who tries out for a struggling Division I program in Georgia.

The setup evokes Tootsie and Mrs. Doubtfire but lands in a different register. Beneath the prosthetics is a drama about ego, reinvention, and how much of one's life can be rebuilt on a lie. Waldron, known for Rick and Morty and Loki, gives the premise a slightly surreal edge, while Powell plays it straight enough to make the disguise believable. The comedy lands not in punchlines but in tension—how long can he keep pretending, and what happens when he starts believing his own invention?

"Nobody would really expect a show based on this sketch to be the best show on TV," Waldron told The New York Times. "That's what kind of lights me up."

Both Mannings were deeply involved in the creative process, consulting with writers and producers and helping with the unglamorous logistics of turning an idea into a working production. They led outreach to at least three universities—including the University of Mississippi—to secure the rights to use uniforms, stadiums, and other athletic trademarks. One pivotal sequence was filmed during halftime of an actual University of Georgia football game, blending fiction and fandom in front of 90,000 unsuspecting fans in Athens.

Powell said that honoring the authenticity of college football was central to the show's tone. "When you have such a ridiculous conceit around your show, which is your entry point, you have to make everything else authentic," he said. "That became the interesting exercise—to take something kind of ridiculous and ground it in the most real way possible."

Practice Makes Plausible

To sell that realism, Powell trained with quarterback coach Nic Shimonek, who also works with Patrick Mahomes, learning drop-backs, posture, and rhythm. His transformation demanded hours in the makeup chair, prosthetics applied layer by layer, and a strict regimen to keep the mask intact under Georgia's heat. The result, critics say, is a performance that feels both committed and unnerving—a man disappearing beneath his own creation.

From Sketch to Studio System

For Omaha Productions, the series represents more than a viral aftershock—it's a declaration of intent. The company has expanded rapidly since its founding, building a slate that includes Quarterback, Receiver, Starting Five, and multiple Places spin-offs. But Chad Powers marks its first scripted comedy and its first major test under its first-look deal with Disney's 20th Television.

Together, Manning and Horowitz—along with Ben Brown, who runs the scripted division—have built Omaha around a tone that's smart, accessible, unpretentious, and relentlessly positive.

Critical Reception

Early reviews have been sharper and more layered than anyone expected. In The Guardian, critic Stuart Heritage called the series "a funny, touching, deliberately uncomfortable character piece with one of the most magnetic central performances in recent memory." He acknowledged its borrowings—"a flagrant Frankenstein of a show," part Ted Lasso, part Mrs. Doubtfire, part viral sports joke—but concluded that it's "a mutant redemption story with a chewy moral core."

The New York Times described Chad Powers as "a surprisingly warm and self-aware satire of college-football culture," one that "turns a viral gag into something tender and strange." The review noted that the Mannings' involvement lent the show a rare authenticity and that Omaha's entry into scripted television "feels less like a brand extension than a genuine creative leap."

Even skeptical outlets have conceded that the show is, somehow, irresistible—a series that knows it's stitched together from familiar parts but wins you over anyway.

On social media, Chad Powers has become the internet's favorite new meme. Clips of Powell's prosthetic-covered sprints—and Eli Manning's original "Think fast, run fast!"—are everywhere. For a show born from a throwaway gag, it's now generating the kind of weekly conversation most comedies only dream about.

The Business Behind the Bit

Omaha's expansion comes with serious backing. In 2023, Peter Chernin's The Chernin Group invested in the company, praising its knack for "stories that connect sports to humanity." The following year, Patrick Whitesell's investment firm WTSL took a stake, adding Hollywood reach. Those moves positioned Omaha less as a boutique sports outfit and more as a cross-platform studio capable of competing for top-tier scripted talent.

Craig Erwich, president of Disney Television Group, insists Chad Powers isn't a product of corporate synergy but of creative momentum. "It's not here because of some contract," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "It's here because they've created something really undeniable."

Midseason Momentum

The first four episodes set up the show's central paradox: Chad's success depends on the lie he tells. Each win brings him closer to exposure. Perry Mattfeld plays Ricky, the assistant coach's daughter who begins to suspect something's off; Steve Zahn, as Coach Jake Hudson, sees in Chad a spark of the player he once was. The tension builds less like a sitcom and more like a pressure cooker disguised as one.

Upcoming episodes promise deeper consequences. Waldron and Powell have hinted that the back half of the season will explore what happens when the disguise cracks—when fame returns, but to the wrong name.

Working with Glen Powell

For Omaha, Powell's involvement has been transformative. The Top Gun: Maverick star brings a marquee presence to a premise that could have seemed too strange on paper. His guest spots this month on ManningCast and Eli's Places underscored the partnership between an A-list actor and two brothers who long ago learned that the best way to disarm an audience is to laugh first.

Omaha's Next Drive

With Chad Powers thriving, Omaha's future slate looks ambitious. Executives close to the company say additional scripted projects are in development under the 20th Television deal—comedies, dramas, even an animated series. The goal is not merely to sell shows but to cultivate a storytelling voice recognizable as "Omaha": earnest, funny, and rooted in the humanity of competition.

Horowitz told the Times that the company's guiding principle remains simple: to create content that embodies optimism and authenticity. Chad Powers, for all its prosthetic absurdity, fits that brief. It's ultimately about resilience—a disgraced athlete finding grace through humor and humility.

The Final Play

Chad Powers may have started as a lark, but it's emerging as a proof-of-concept—for Omaha Productions as a studio and for a new kind of sports storytelling that doesn't rely on stats or highlights to hold an audience. Half a season in, the show feels like a metaphor for its makers: learning on the fly, trusting instinct, refusing to take itself too seriously.

If the remaining episodes deliver on their emotional promise, Omaha will have achieved more than a streaming success—it will have defined how an athlete-founded company, guided by the leadership of Peyton Manning and Jamie Horowitz, can bridge authenticity, humor, and heart. Because in the end, that's what Chad Powers—and Omaha itself—represents: thinking fast, running fast, and believing the next play might just change everything.