Cupertino premiered on CBS on Thursday, October 8, 2026, and the new legal drama from Robert and Michelle King is already one of the most talked-about broadcast shows of the fall. Mike Colter and Rachel Keller lead a firm of underdog lawyers taking on Silicon Valley tech companies, and the season is built for a long run with a 20-episode order. The episode list is still filling in, but the first four titles and air dates are confirmed, along with a cast that includes Ella Stiller, Busy Philipps, and Renée Elise Goldsberry.
The show follows Michael Price, an attorney who was pushed out of the tech start-up he helped build and cheated out of his stock options. He teams with Olivia Siffre, another recently fired lawyer, to open a small firm that represents people stepped on by the tech elite. The premise gives the series a case-of-the-week structure with a season-long thread about who really controls Silicon Valley.
Every Confirmed Episode Date and Title
CBS airs new episodes every Thursday at 10 PM ET/PT, with streaming on Paramount+ the same night for Premium subscribers and next-day streaming for all other plans. Four episode titles are confirmed, and the fifth date is set by the weekly pattern.
- Episode 1 — “Michael & Olivia”: Thursday, October 8, 2026. Michael and Olivia launch their own law firm. Michael’s former assistant, Christy Palladino, uses her Bay Area connections to help them get started.
- Episode 2 — “Vik & Bo”: Thursday, October 15, 2026. The firm defends Vik Malhotra, a Silicon Valley coder blamed for a stray drone that killed a bystander during a drone display. Christy also looks at a possible whistleblower client.
- Episode 3 — “Juno”: Thursday, October 22, 2026. A distraught mother believes a companion chatbot is responsible for her son’s patricide. The chatbot company brings in Michael’s ex-girlfriend, Nichole, as opposing counsel. Fisher Stevens guest stars as Natalia’s billionaire ex-husband.
- Episode 4 — “A.J. & Buddy”: Thursday, October 29, 2026. Michael and Olivia defend the young founders of a prediction market site. One founder is arrested, while the other flees on a private jet with Christy after a night out. Amanda Warren guest stars as District Attorney Sally Clausen.
- Episode 5: Thursday, November 5, 2026. The title and synopsis have not been shared by CBS.
Titles and summaries for episodes beyond the fifth have not been released. The season is confirmed at 20 episodes, which means the run will continue deep into 2027 if CBS follows a standard broadcast calendar without long breaks.
The Full Main Cast and Who They Play
The core cast is small and built around the new firm. Each character has a clear role in the David-versus-Goliath setup.
- Mike Colter plays Michael Price, the lawyer who lost his stock options and refuses to walk away. Colter has worked with the Kings before on The Good Wife, The Good Fight, and Evil.
- Rachel Keller plays Olivia Siffre, a newly minted law school graduate who was also fired from the same start-up. She brings a different kind of pressure to the firm because people underestimate her.
- Ella Stiller plays Christy Palladino, Michael’s former assistant and a Bay Area insider who helps the firm launch.
- Nik Dodani plays Vikram Malhotra, a coder whose drone case becomes the focus of Episode 2.
- Busy Philipps plays Natalia Boutella, the blunt first wife of an AI billionaire. She agrees to finance the firm because she wants revenge on her ex-husband and other AI businesses.
- Renée Elise Goldsberry plays Nichole E. Ferebee, Michael’s ex-girlfriend and a sharp opposing lawyer.
Joe Morton recurs as Bayard, Michael’s celebrity lawyer father, who casts a long shadow and values success above everything else. Steven Pasquale recurs as Ry, a successful Silicon Valley lawyer who knows how to control a room. Rob McClure recurs as Bo, a potential client who approaches the firm for representation.
Guest Stars and Recurring Faces
The guest list is one of the season’s stronger selling points. Fisher Stevens appears in Episode 3 as Natalia’s billionaire ex-husband. Amanda Warren appears in Episode 4 as District Attorney Sally Clausen. Stephen Kunken and Stephen Pasquale are also listed among the guest stars.
Ella Stiller’s casting has drawn its own attention. She is the daughter of Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor, and her parents reacted to the news with surprise. Stiller told TV Insider that her parents found the casting to be “uncharted territory” for them.
Mike Colter described the firm’s growth in team-building terms.
“I think the hiring of Christy [played by Ella Stiller] and the relationship that you see developing with Natalia [played by Busy Philipps], is him building an Avengers team,” Colter told ScreenRant.
Little-Known Facts About Cupertino Season 1
The show is named after the California city where Apple is headquartered, but it is not officially an Apple story. The series takes aim at big tech power in general, and the legal cases are fictional.
Filming did not take place in Cupertino. The production built its Silicon Valley sets in Kearny, New Jersey, inside a warehouse district with a view of the Hackensack River. Robert King told The New York Times that tax breaks and proximity to New York theater actors made New Jersey the practical choice. The deliberately unfinished look of the set was a nod to what King called the “fake-it-till-you-make-it” style of Silicon Valley.
Busy Philipps underwent brain surgery in early March 2026, weeks before she started production on Cupertino. She had a grade 2 oligodendroglioma, a rare slow-growing tumor, and doctors removed a 2.6-centimeter mass from her brain. Philipps later needed a second surgery for a staph infection on her incision. She has since returned to work and promoted the show.
The premiere landed a 100% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes from 22 reviews at debut, with an average rating of 8.60 out of 10. Metacritic shows a score of 87. The 20-episode order is also unusual for a modern broadcast drama and gives the show room for standalone cases and a longer serialized story about AI and tech accountability.
You May Also Like:
View all articles about
Where to Watch Cupertino Around the World
CBS airs new episodes live in the United States every Thursday at 10 PM ET/PT. Paramount+ Premium subscribers can stream episodes live as they air, and all other Paramount+ plans offer next-day streaming.
Canada gets the series through Paramount+ Canada starting October 15, 2026, one week after the U.S. premiere. The show is rated TV-14.
UK viewers do not have a confirmed broadcaster or streaming home for Cupertino at the time of writing. Australia also has no confirmed streaming service for the series. India has no confirmed release platform either. Viewers in those markets should check local Paramount+ catalogues, because availability changes by country and licensing deal.
For more episode guides, cast updates, and streaming news from the new broadcast season, keep reading VvipTimes.
Leave a Reply