Daniel Henderson

**Daniel Henderson** is the co-anchor of the last hour on UBA's The Morning Show, a pop-culture/entertainment hour called "The Twist."

## History

### Mitch's 50th Birthday

Daniel joined the rest of the cast and crew of TMS to celebrate Mitch's 50th birthday.

### Mitch's Firing and Job Dissatisfaction

Daniel was co-host of The Twist, the fluff segment at the end of The Morning Show. He was dissatisfied with this job, feeling he had more to offer as a reporter. When Mitch Kessler was fired among allegations of sexual harassment, Daniel believed he should be up for the co-host job.

With the seat still open, Daniel continued filling in as co-host. He believed he was doing a good job and told Chip so, hoping to have a shot at the job permanently. Chip said he was too serious and needed to do more schmoozing if he wanted the job. At an event where Alex was being honored, Daniel tried to do just that, but found himself exhausted by it. Later, when Alex was accepting her award, she shocked everyone, including Bradley, by announced Bradley as her new co-host.

As Bradley prepared for her new role, Daniel and Alison teased her debut on the show. However, once the show was over, Daniel went to Chip and threatened to quit because he'd been passed over for the job. Chip told Daniel to take a breath and stick around for when the chair opened up again and hinted that maybe two chairs would open up. When Alex left instead of staying to rehearse with Bradley, Daniel stepped in and ran through a segment with her.

### Alex's Fundraiser

Daniel attended a fundraising party Alex threw at her house. At the party, he and Alison performed a duet. Afterward, Audra Khatri told him he was too talented to keep waiting around at TMS. He told her he felt that his work at TMS wasn't done yet.

### Wildfires

When most of the cast and crew of TMS went to California to cover the wildfires raging there, Daniel and Alison stayed behind in New York. They started the show in the studio before cutting to Alex and Bradley, who were in California.

### Photoshoot and Meeting with Audra

Shorty after the wildfires, Daniel met with Audra, who wanted him to come work at YDA with her. She cited two white women being the focus while he got sidelined as one of the reasons why he should leave. He said that TMS had pulled him away from a job he actually liked with the promise of more, but then he was sidelined. Despite this, he said that other people would be hurt by him leaving and he refused to do that to them.

Daniel went from the meeting to the photoshoot so they could get photos of the new cast of TMS. While they were posing, they were shocked to hear Mia's voice come over the speaker, talking about her relationship with Mitch and the rumors surrounding it. She ended the speech saying she just wanted to be able to focus on her work and move on.

When Alex came to Daniel and said she had a plan to oust Bradley and replace her with Daniel, he immediately made a call to call things off with YDA. He said he'd smooth it over with Audra, but he had to go with the devil he knew.

Later, Daniel asked Alex if Bradley knew yet and Alex said she would know soon. However, this never materialized because Alex decided to renege on her deal with Fred and she and Bradley went off-script to implicate Fred.

### New Years Eve

For New Years, Daniel and Alison traveled down to New Orleans to report on the celebration there. While Daniel reported at midnight, a celebrator grabbed Daniel's face and licked him on the head.

### Alex's Return and Coronavirus

Daniel closely followed the cases of the novel coronavirus in China. He wanted to cover the story on The Morning Show, but Mia said they had too many other stories to cover and didn't have the time to dedicate to it. Daniel then attended the dinner Cory threw to celebrate Alex's return. When Alex was late to the party, Ty asked Yanko and Daniel if she liked to make people wait on her. Yanko tried to be diplomatic, but Daniel said Alex is entitled.

When Alex arrived, she apologized to Daniel for what she'd done, but Daniel did not accept her apology. Once everyone arrived, they sat down to dinner. The conversation centered on the novel coronavirus. Alison joked about it, saying it was like having the flu, but Daniel said people were dying and it wasn't a joke. He repeated that he wanted The Morning Show to report on it. Alex suggested that Daniel go to Wuhan to cover it. When he reminded her that he was supposed to go to Iowa to cover the caucus, she said Bradley could go instead. When Stella objected that it's not exciting television, Mia interjected to say that Daniel was right and they should cover it. The conversation then shifted to the impeachment trial, but was interrupted by Cory toasting to Alex and Bradley and announcing their plans for Alex's return.

Later, Daniel boarded a flight to China.

Daniel was asleep in his hotel room in Wuhan when Ian came in and woke him up, telling him they were locking Wuhan down and they needed to get out of the city before 10:00 AM. They raced to a train station, where Ian lied and said his mother was dying in Beijing to get them on the last train out of Wuhan before lockdown. Once in Beijing, Daniel, Ian, and Jun quarantined at the Beijin Hilton for 14 days. On the fifth day, Daniel reported from his hotel room and it was streamed onto The Morning Show. When they prepared to do another report on another day, Daniel was told they weren't doing a segment that day because they didn't have time in the schedule, which frustrated him. He called Mia to complain, but Mia just said they needed ratings and the virus wasn't impacting Americans. Daniel hung up on her. When their quarantine ended, they packed up and left their hotel room.

Upon returning to The Morning Show, Daniel's frustration at being sidelined increased. He asked Mia about moderating the Vegas debate, but she came back after meeting with Stella to tell him that Stella didn't think he had the "It" factor and wouldn't be moderating the debate. In response, Daniel took the spot meant for a special guest and made a grandiose performance of Coming to America. After the show, Stella came to Daniel's room to speak to him, which left him somber.

Daniel interviewed Peter Bullard on The Morning show. Peter was there promoting his new show, which would be premiering on UBA+. Peter explained the premise of his show, which centered around interviews. Daniel reminded Peter of a time when he'd referred to Daniel as "mincing" on his show. Peter stumbled over his words and Daniel played his statement off as a joke and they continued by talking about guests he had planned for his show.

On the next show, when an article on The Vault outed Laura and Bradley's relationship, Daniel said he hoped it wasn't true because being outed publicly is painful and awful. When Bradley left the set abruptly after a segment, Laura got Daniel to cover the next segment and went after her.

### Mitch's Death

When they received an unconfirmed report that Mitch had died in a car accident in Italy, Mia gathered everyone together to tell them the news. Ultimately, they received two confirmations that he was dead and reported the news to the world.

### Paige's Visit

Daniel was present when Paige came to the studio to ask Mitch's former co-workers if they would come to the memorial she had planned for him.

### Alex Controversy and Quitting TMS

In the wake of the scandal caused by the leaked video from Mitch's memorial, Daniel took to the main desk and said they were aware of the remarks and were investigating everyone Alex had contact with after her return from Italy.

Later, when Alex tested positive for COVID, everyone at TMS was gathered together and told someone had tested positive and everyone else needed to go home immmeidately and wait for further instructions. Daniel asked if someone had tested positive or if Alex had tested positive. Stella said they couldn't divulge that, but everyone was certain it was her and criticized her decision to go to Italy. As everyone went to leave, Stella stopped Daniel and told him he'd be anchoring TMS for a few weeks, from home, while Alex was out. He said he wouldn't do that. His grandfather was in a nursing home and he needed to go get his grandfather and bring him home, which would take several days as he couldn't fly or stay in any hotels. When Stella tried to insist, Daniel quit and left.

Later, while he was stopped in Cincinnati, Daniel got a call from Mia asking him to reconsider and come back. They talked about the difficulties of being Black in the industry. Daniel said he had to stop waiting for someone to offer him a seat and instead build his own table. She told him things wouldn't be different somewhere else, but accepted his decision to leave.

## Personality

He is intelligent and restlessly ambitious. However, he also has a sense of loyalty as he decided not to jump ship at TMS despite being offered a co-anchor job at *Your Day, America*.

## Career

Daniel has a background in political journalism. He joined TMS as a co-anchor of the pop culture segment called "The Twist" hoping to climb the ranks. When Alex Levy and Fred Micklen were looking to fire Bradley Jackson, Daniel was promised the co-anchor chair to replace her, which made him reject Audra's offer to become a co-anchor on her show Your Day, America.

## References

1. ↑ Lonely at the Top, 1x08
2. ↑ In the Dark Night of the Soul It's Always 3:30 in the Morning, 1x01
3. ↑ A Seat at the Table, 1x02
4. ↑ Chaos Is the New Cocaine, 1x03
5. ↑ No One's Gonna Harm You, Not While I'm Around, 1x05
6. ↑ The Pendulum Swings, 1x06
7. ↑ Open Waters, 1x07
8. ↑ Play the Queen, 1x09
9. ↑ The Interview, 1x10
10. ↑ My Least Favorite Year, 2x01
11. ↑ It's Like The Flu, 2x02
12. ↑ Laura, 2x03
13. ↑ Kill the Fatted Calf, 2x04
14. ↑ A Private Person, 2x06
15. ↑ Confirmations, 2x08
16. ↑ Testimony, 2x09
17. ↑ Fever, 2x10