Claire Conway

**Claire Conway** was a PA on set of UBA's The Morning Show.

## History

### Starting at TMS and Mitch's 50th Birthday

Claire started out on set as a PA, which involved getting people coffee and running errands. In the course of her duties, Claire met and got close with Hannah, one of the bookers. She also met Yanko, whose weather reports she enjoyed.

Soon after starting, Claire joined the rest of the cast and crew of TMS to celebrate Mitch's 50th birthday.

### Finding Bradley

After the New York Times reported that Mitch Kessler was being investigated for multiple accusations of sexual harassment, Hannah Shoenfeld, a booker for The Morning Show, began looking for strong women to be interviewed on the show. Claire showed her a video of Bradley Jackson, who got into an altercation with a protester who attacked her camera operator. Hannah watched the video and then flew to West Virginia to convince Bradley to come on the show. When Bradley arrived at the set, Claire led her into the studio for her interview. When the interview was over, Claire told her she'd done a great job.

On Bradley's first day at the studio, Claire introduced herself and said she was going to shadow her to give people a front row look at house you make a star.

When Bradley made her debut on TMS, she went off-script and told the harsh truth about her childhood, including the abortion she'd had at fifteen. While Yanko wasn't impressed with her, Claire said she was amazing.

Claire spoke to Vicki Manderly, whom the network had hired to interview everyone about the culture of the show. She told Vicki she'd been at the show for 18 months and everything she'd seen had been above board.

### Birthday Celebration

Claire went out with several women from the show to celebrate her birthday. While they celebrated, they talked about dating co-workers in the #MeToo era. Bradley said she'd be shocked if Mitch was the whole problem. The conversation led to Mia calling it a night early. When the NYT article about the show came out, they all stopped to read it.

### Wildfires and Going to HR

Claire went to California with most of the cast and crew of TMS to cover the wildfires raging there. While in a production meeting, Hannah mentioned that Claire had found a video online about private firefighters wealthy people were hiring to protect their property while poorer people lost everything.

Later, while riding with Hannah, who was talking to a woman she was trying to get on the show to talk about her experience in the wildfire, Claire asked Hannah how she was so good at talking to people who had been through such horrible traumas. Hannah cited her own experience with losing her mother and said that she just tries not to make things worse for them. She then offered Claire Adderall as they were going to be awake for the next 30 hours. Claire took it. Hannah then said that remote shoots were a good time to impress higher-ups because things happen on remote shoots.

When they returned to the production tent, Claire took some masks from Rena to help pass them out. Mia told her to go give one to Bradley in her trailer. When Claire did that, Bradley asked her about the private firefighters. Claire confirmed that she was the one who had found that. Bradley then asked Claire about her career goals. Claire said she wasn't sure yet. When Bradley mentioned she was looking for an assistant, Claire offered herself up for the job. When Bradley offered it to her, she immediately went to tell Yanko. He said he was proud of her.

That night, Claire texted Yanko and then went to his hotel room.

Shortly after their return to Yanko, Claire went to Yanko to see if he'd also gotten an email asking him to come to HR. They wondered if someone saw them and reported it. While Claire wanted to go to HR and deny everything, Yanko wanted to put their relationship down on paper. They agreed to meet in HR after he was finished with the photoshoot.

In HR, they were individually interviewed by Sheila Lutkin. She started by asking how it began. Claire said she found his brain sexy and translated that to actual sex. Claire became uncomfortable as Sheila asked her very personal questions about the relationship. Sheila asked if her relationship with Yanko was serious, as they wanted to know if the relationship in that environment was sustainable. Claire wondered if she'd be fired over it because they wouldn't fire their weatherman. Claire said she didn't want to come to HR in the first place and needed to leave. Sheila reminded her that she chose to come in and asked if Claire needed help getting out of the relationship. Claire left without answering.

Outside, Claire ran into Yanko, who asked if she was okay and said he was sure they'd be okay. When Claire spotted Bradley approaching them, she quickly changed the subject and then left.

In the aftermath of their conversation with HR, Yanko came to check on Claire as she wasn't returning his calls. She told him that she didn't want their co-workers knowing about their relationship. He said he still felt they'd done the right thing and invited her to go to dinner with him, somewhere outside his apartment. She accepted.

Claire then met with Hannah and explained the relationship she had with Yanko and why she didn't want to go public with it. She said Yanko wasn't predatory, but she didn't think other people would understand their relationship. Hannah admitted that she was the one who reported them after seeing them sneaking around in LA. Claire got angry that Hannah had reported it without asking her about it first. They argued over it, with Claire saying her experience was different from Hannah's. Then she said she loved Yanko and was going to have dinner with him.

Claire met Yanko for dinner, but she found herself too worried to go in, convinced others would judge her. Yanko said he knew the owner and that wouldn't happen, but she explained how she felt overwhelmed by it. She was worried about her career because she was just starting out. She loved being in a dark room with him, but now that they were out in the open, she didn't feel the same way. Yanko said he understood and left.

### Hannah's Death

After ending things with Yanko, Claire began to regret how she'd treated Hannah and tried repeatedly to reach out to her. Finally, Claire went to Hannah's apartment to force Hannah to talk to her, only to find that Hannah had died. Claire called Bradley and told her that Hannah was dead because of an overdose. It might have been an accident, but it also could have been suicide. Claire didn't know which.

Claire ran from Hannah's apartment to the studio, where she found Yanko and hugged him.

After Alex and Bradley's eventful broadcast, Claire quit her job and went back to school.

### Seeing Yanko Again

Claire was back in town and hanging out with her friend, Meredith, when they ran into Yanko. She decided to leave Meredith to catch up with Yanko. After talking happily for hours, Claire asked if he wanted to meet up again, on Monday, the only free day she had before she had to leave again. When he said he had a memorial to attend that day, she realized he was planning to go to Mitch's memorial. She was horrified as she blamed Mitch for Hannah's death and said she was glad he was dead and hoped Fred was next, with his $119.2 million settlement. Yanko commented that he might have to pay that back as he and the network were being sued by Hannah's family. Claire told him she knew as she was bankrolling the lawsuit. She felt guilty for how she'd treated Hannah the day she died. Yanko told her she shouldn't feel guilty, but Claire just told him not to tell her what to do and left.

## Personality

Claire is very determined to prove herself at work.

## Relationships

### Romantic

She developed a romantic relationship with TMS's weatherman Yanko Flores. On top of the issues caused by navigating a relationship at work with a colleague, their relationship was compromised by a heightened on-set awareness of sexual misconduct when news of Mitch's sexual harassment broke. This dynamic made Yanko nervous, but Claire insisted that, due to her family's massive wealth, she actually held the power in the relationship despite him being senior to her at work.

### Family

She is the daughter of someone important but nobody at work is aware of that.

### Friendships

She quickly developed a friendship with head booker Hannah Shoenfeld. They had a falling out when Hannah, in an attempt to protect Claire, reported Claire and Yanko's budding relationship to HR behind Claire's back. Before the two could make up, Hannah fatally overdosed, with Claire arriving shortly after her body was discovered by her landlord.

### Professional

Claire sees Bradley Jackson as a mentor figure.

## Career

Claire started out as a general PA on UBA's The Morning Show before ultimately ending up on Bradley's team.

## Memorable Quotes

“My family could buy and sell you and your entire family tree a thousand times over”, Claire to Yanko when discussing the power balance in their relationship.

## 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. ↑ Chaos Is the New Cocaine, 1x03
4. ↑ That Woman, 1x04
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. ↑ Testimony, 2x09
12. ↑ A Seat at the Table, 1x02