Glen Powell spent most of 2025 convincing college football fans that a walk-on named Chad Powers was the real deal, and it worked well enough that Hulu didn’t wait long to order more. Chad Powers season 2 arrives September 3, and this time the disguise isn’t fooling everybody anymore.
That single fact changes the entire shape of the show. Season one was about getting away with the lie. Season two is about what happens once the lie starts leaking.
Quick Facts: Season 1 Recap
| Detail | Season 1 |
|---|---|
| Premiere date | September 30, 2025 |
| Episode count | 6 episodes (half-hour format) |
| How it ended | Ricky Hudson discovers Russ is Chad, but keeps the secret to protect her father and the team |
| Filming setting | Georgia (fictional South Georgia Catfish program) |
| Critic score | 59% (Rotten Tomatoes) |
| Audience score | 83% (Rotten Tomatoes) |
| Based on | Eli Manning’s 2022 “Eli’s Places” ESPN+ segment |
What Is Chad Powers Season 2 About?
The series follows Russ Holliday, a once-promising college quarterback whose career collapsed after a very public meltdown. He rebuilds himself, literally, using prosthetics, a wig and a soft West Virginia drawl, and reinvents himself as Chad Powers, a walk-on for the struggling South Georgia Catfish, a program filmed on location in Georgia to keep the setting grounded in real college football culture.
By the end of season one, offensive assistant coach Ricky Hudson had figured out exactly who “Chad” really was. She chose not to expose him, mostly to protect her father, head coach Jake Hudson, and the team’s shot at a real season. That decision is the hinge on which Chad Powers season 2 swings.
According to the official logline, Chad is now a legitimate star on the field, but his strange behavior off it has Coach Hudson and rival player Gerry increasingly suspicious. Russ and his best friend Danny need Ricky’s help to keep the act alive long enough to chase the College Football Playoff. Nobody involved seems thrilled about the arrangement, least of all Ricky.
Chad Powers Season 2 Release Date and Where to Watch
Chad Powers season 2 premieres Thursday, September 3, 2026, and unlike season one, which rolled out weekly after a two-episode debut, this batch of six half-hour episodes drops all at once, which works out to roughly three hours of total runtime for anyone planning a single-sitting binge. Hulu carries it in the United States, with Hulu on Disney+ available for bundle subscribers, while Disney+ handles the international rollout.
Access-wise, Hulu’s ad-supported plan runs about $11.99 a month as of 2026, with an ad-free tier around $18.99, and Disney has been folding the standalone Hulu app into the Disney+ app throughout the year, though existing subscriptions and pricing carry over during that transition. Viewers without an active Hulu account will need one of these plans, or the Disney+ bundle, to stream the new season.
That binge-style release strategy is a small but telling shift. A season built to be consumed in one sitting signals confidence from the network, and it fits a show driven by mounting, cascading tension rather than a slow weekly burn. Showrunner Michael Waldron is also more hands-on this time, directing four of the six episodes himself, including the season premiere and finale, a level of creative control that suggests the writers’ room wanted tight authorship over how the season lands.
The show was renewed in December 2025, not long after season one wrapped, and filming picked up again in early 2026. That quick turnaround is unusual for a network comedy and points to strong internal confidence, even though critical reaction to season one was mixed at best. Hulu released the first trailer on Thursday, August 13, 2026, just three weeks ahead of the premiere.
Who Is Coming Back for Chad Powers Season 2
Glen Powell returns in the dual role of Russ Holliday and his alter ego, a part that requires him to play two versions of essentially the same guy without letting either one feel like a cartoon. He’s joined by most of the original core cast, and four new names have been added to widen the world of the South Georgia Catfish.
| Character | Actor | Season 2 Status |
|---|---|---|
| Russ Holliday / Chad Powers | Glen Powell | Returning, lead |
| Ricky Hudson | Perry Mattfeld | Returning, expanded role |
| Coach Jake Hudson | Steve Zahn | Returning |
| Coach Byrd | Quentin Plair | Returning |
| Tricia Yeager | Wynn Everett | Returning |
| Danny Cruz | Frankie Rodriguez | Returning |
| Gerry | Colton Ryan | Returning |
| Jay | Colin Woodell | New, guest star |
| Jerri Dougan | Gillian Jacobs | New, guest star |
| Mr. Brent | Carey O’Donnell | New, guest star |
| Dustin | Nate Varrone | New, guest star |
Jay is a wealthy Catfish alum whom Tricia tries to recruit as a booster, Jerri is Gerry’s sister and a fan convinced Chad stole her brother’s starting job, Mr. Brent runs USG’s cheerleading program, and Dustin is a roommate at Chad’s supposed West Virginia address who gets unwittingly pulled into the lie. Anyone who has followed a football-adjacent workplace comedy knows the supporting bench usually decides whether a second season feels fresh or repetitive, and giving each new arrival a specific angle on Russ’s cover story is a deliberate way to widen the pressure without just adding noise.
How Chad Powers Season 2 Builds on the Cliffhanger
Season one ended right before the Catfish’s game against the Georgia Bulldogs, with Ricky agreeing to sit on her discovery. That’s a fragile peace, not a resolution, and the trailer makes clear the fragility is the whole point.
In the footage, Russ admits to Ricky that he’s “in over my head,” a rare moment of honesty from a character whose entire arc is built on dishonesty. Danny, meanwhile, is still managing the physical side of the disguise, from wig maintenance to timing every prosthetic touch-up around practice schedules. Longtime viewers of workplace-secret storylines will recognize the pattern: the closer a character gets to success, the harder the truth becomes to hide, because success brings attention.
Coach Hudson and Gerry both grow more suspicious as the season goes on, which puts pressure on Russ from two directions at once. He has to perform well enough to keep his roster spot, but not so well that people start asking uncomfortable questions about a walk-on nobody had heard of a year earlier.
Ratings vs. Reviews: The Real Story
Season one didn’t win over critics in a big way. Review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes recorded a “rotten” 59% score from critics, while general audiences responded far more warmly at 83%. That audience-critic gap is exactly why Chad Powers season 2 exists at all; streamers increasingly weigh raw viewership and audience sentiment as heavily as critical consensus when deciding what survives into a second run.
Industry reporting has also noted that Chad Powers ranked among the most-watched new titles on both Hulu and Disney+ shortly after its debut, a pattern that tracks with how quickly Hulu greenlit more episodes. Shows built around a strong, singular lead performance tend to hold onto their audience even when critical reception is mixed, and Powell’s performance was repeatedly singled out as the reason the format worked at all.
Why the Premise Still Works
Sports comedies live or die on whether the stakes feel real even when the setup is silly, and a grown man in a bad wig lying his way onto a college roster is about as silly as premises get. What keeps people watching, according to those who’ve covered the show closely, is that the humor never undercuts the emotional stakes underneath it.
Anyone who has worked in an environment built around a shared secret understands the specific stress Chad Powers season 2 is chasing: the exhaustion of performing a version of yourself for an audience that could turn on you the moment they learn the truth. That’s a very human tension, football jersey or not.
The show’s origin adds another layer for longtime college football fans. The character began as a 2022 segment on ESPN’s “Eli’s Places,” where former NFL quarterback Eli Manning disguised himself and tried out for Penn State’s walk-on program under the name Chad Powers. Manning and his brother Peyton remain executive producers on the series, which gives the football details a level of authenticity that a purely fictional sports show usually lacks.
Challenges Facing Season 2
Not everything points toward smooth sailing. Critics who found season one thin on plot will be watching closely to see whether six more episodes can sustain a premise that’s inherently limited: there are only so many ways a disguise can almost fall apart before it either has to collapse or strain credibility.
There’s also a structural challenge specific to Chad Powers season 2. With Ricky now in on the secret, the show loses some of its easiest comic engine, the dramatic irony of Russ fooling everyone. Replacing that engine with mounting suspicion from Hudson and Gerry is a reasonable trade, but it changes the tone from farce toward something closer to a slow-building thriller with jokes.
Expanding the cast by four new characters also risks diluting the tight, character-driven feel that made season one’s six episodes easy to binge in an afternoon. Balancing new guest stars against the core relationships that actually carry the show will be the season’s biggest creative test. And viewers hoping for a locked-in future should know that beyond this season, nothing has been formally announced. Waldron and Powell have both spoken about wanting a “beginning, middle and end” arc for the Catfish, but a season 3 order is not yet confirmed.
Who Should Watch Chad Powers Season 2
- Fans of sports comedies that lean on character over spectacle
- Viewers who enjoyed the underdog-athlete format of shows built around a hidden identity
- College football fans curious about the “Eli’s Places” origin story
- Anyone who wants a binge-ready season rather than a weekly wait
- Viewers who prefer six tight episodes over a sprawling twenty-episode order
Conclusion
Chad Powers season 2 lands on Hulu September 3, 2026, with all six half-hour episodes available at once, and it arrives carrying real pressure to prove that a premise this specific can sustain a second act. The cast is largely intact, four new characters raise the stakes around Russ’s secret, and the writers clearly have a plan that stretches beyond one lucky season, even if that plan hasn’t extended to an official season 3 yet. Whether Russ Holliday can keep the Chad Powers act alive through a real playoff push is the question the whole season is built around, and based on everything revealed so far, fans have plenty of reason to tune in.
FAQs
When does Chad Powers season 2 come out?
It premieres Thursday, September 3, 2026, on Hulu, with all six episodes released simultaneously.
Is Glen Powell returning for season 2?
Yes. Powell reprises both roles, Russ Holliday and his alter ego Chad Powers, and remains a co-creator and executive producer on the series.
Does Ricky expose Chad’s secret identity?
Not by the end of season one. She learns the truth but chooses to protect her father and the team instead of revealing it, setting up the tension that drives the new season.
How many episodes does the new season have, and how long is it to watch?
Six half-hour episodes, matching season one’s format, for a total runtime of roughly three hours if watched back to back.
Is Chad Powers based on a true story?
It’s inspired by a real 2022 ESPN segment in which Eli Manning disguised himself and tried out for Penn State’s football program under the name Chad Powers, though the TV series itself is a scripted fictional expansion of that idea.