The series opens with news anchor Will McAvoy participating in a panel at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and giving a controversial speech on America's recent decline as a nation, shocking the audience. He then goes on vacation for two weeks to let the dust settle, and comes back to work only to find that his executive producer and most of his team are leaving him for another news anchor. He also discovers that his boss, Charlie Skinner, has hired him a new executive producer; Mackenzie MacHale, Will's ex-girlfriend with whom Will has bad history. He protests, but Charlie is adamant, insisting that Mackenzie will build on his performance at Northwestern and help develop a new, improved news broadcast. Will eventually allows Mackenzie to work with him but only under the condition that he can fire her at the end of each week. Meanwhile, a news alert comes in about an explosion off the Gulf of Mexico, but no one in the newsroom believes it to be worth pursuing. Thanks to an anonymous tip given to one of Mackenzie's team members, Jim, they start to realize that the fire is actually an oil rig explosion that occurred relatively near to the Louisiana coast and that the oil spill has yet to be plugged. Will decides to take up the case and the Louisiana oil spill ends up being the main piece of news for the evening show. Their show ends up being the only one to do the piece on the oil spill; all other news stations had not realized the severity of the situation and based their shows on the iPhone prototype.