The Paper Cast, Creators Tease Season 2, Say Editing Episodes for NBC Was a 'Fascinating' Experiment

The Toledo Truth Teller will be back in September, and the staff is already fine-tuning the headlines for what to expect in Season 2 of Peacock's The Paper. 

The sibling series to The Office was a critical hit when it dropped last year, and its creators Greg Daniels and Michael Koman joined a few of their staffers — Sabrina Impacciatore, Chelsea Frei, Melvin Gregg, and Óscar Nuñez — at the ATX TV Festival in Austin on May 29 to drop hints about what's to come for the paper. 

After their panel, Daniels and Koman spoke to TV Guide about what they took from Season 1 into their sophomore run, starting with a better handle on just who this new cast of characters is. 

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"I learned a lot in the editing suite about this show, particularly," Daniels says. "You really figure out the tone for each person. It's just easier in Season 2, and the actors get to see what worked for their characters and start leaning into it. When you see little moves that actors do, especially in the first season or the pilot, they are little seeds that grow into huge parts of the characters later." 

Season 1 even peeled back layers on the one character that bridges The Paper and The Office — Nuñez's curmudgeon accountant Oscar. 

"Even with Oscar, he had a meeting where he had to muster his courage and defy the boss, and at the end of it, he is stalling and leaves to go to the bathroom," Daniels says. "When he gets up, he does a little bow and his boss says 'so formal.' In the minds of the writers, that became a whole new thing for this character, who isn't even new to this [world]." 

Nuñez says his biggest lesson coming out of Season 1 is that the pace of The Paper is completely different from The Office. 

"Season 2 prepares you more, but it's still this whole other thing," he says. "The vibe of everything is faster now. This is absolutely faster paced [than The Office]. The world moves quicker now. TV is part of that, and this show moves quick." 

Similarly for Melvin Gregg, who plays ad sales rep Detrick, it's in the edit where he found his character, who began the series more reserved than how he ended it. "On a set, when you are doing four or five different takes, you don't always know which beat to hit," he says. "But after watching Season 1, and the edit they chose, I was able to look at it and say, 'This is who Detrick is.'" 

Sabrina Impacciatore, who plays the impetuous and hilarious TTT Online managing editor Esmeralda, says going back for Season 2 was about letting go of the last bit of hesitation she had. The Italian actress feared she wouldn't be able to top all of Esmeralda's antics, from singing an incredibly offensive in memoriam to dreaming up ways to get revenge on a teenage blogger. 

"I was terrified to face the same character after one year," she says. "I believed I wasn't able to play it anymore. I got very concerned about it. When I arrived on set, what changed everything was to be dressed and have the hair and makeup as Esmeralda again. Suddenly, because of that, the character comes back." 

There was also the matter of worrying about how Esmeralda, who doesn't make her coworkers' lives easier, might be seen by the audience starting the new series. "The difference between this year and last year was that I felt more relaxed because I didn't know if Esmeralda would be accepted or not," she says. "Also, as an Italian, I had this complex emotion about the audience not accepting me or identifying themselves in me. I was worried about her not being loved." 

Thankfully, she has nothing to worry about. Esmeralda and Impacciatore are among the most critically adored parts of the series. This season, Impacciatore wanted to go even further with the body comedy, as she calls it, which saw her literally throw herself into the impulsive and flashy Esmeralda's increasingly desperate ploy for power — at least what she can get at a small newspaper. 

"This year, I was challenged," she says. "I can't spoil why, but especially toward the end of the season, I was highly challenged by what Greg and Michael did with her. I did very crazy things there. I have no idea what happened, honestly." 

Frei, who plays newly minted award-winning journalist Mare, jumps in to say she was on set for most of what Impacciatore is referring to and, can confirm, "it's amazing." But Impacciatore notes some things even Frei didn't see. 

"I shot stuff after all of you were sent home, that's what really challenged me," she teases. 

With Mare, Frei is always eager to get more of the physical comedy, especially with her character's background as an army vet. "Maybe mention that loudly around Greg and Michael," she jokes. 

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But going into Season 2, Frei does want to see the success that Mare found at the end of Season 1 tested a bit. While she is certainly getting her footing as a journalist, there is still room for missteps. 

"One of the things I did say when we went into the writers room, because she ends Season 1 on such a high and with this fever dream, is that I really wanted to see her fail and embarrass herself," she says. "Just find ways she can trip over herself, you know?" 

How she might fail, how Esmeralda can escalate her antics, how Detrick can harness his new found confidence, and how Oscar might follow up his Mister Digit success will all be revealed in Season 2. But before they even started writing the new batch episodes, which have already been filmed, Koman and Daniels got a new perspective on Season 1 when they edited the 30-minute episodes into a broadcast-friendly 22 minutes to be aired on NBC. 

The episodes, which the creators asked to be cataloged on Peacock separately from the original episodes, are censored for language and content for NBC, where Koman and Daniels agree the show certainly picked up new viewers. 

"We had to make a network cut, which was significantly shorter than what was on Peacock, and it was fascinating to me how much it felt like a completely different episode," Koman says, "It is the same story, but the pace matters so much. It felt like a broadcast sitcom, whereas the original does feel like something made for streaming." 

While audiences shouldn't expect the show to move to broadcast permanently, the creators both agreed they would like to see Season 2 get the same treatment, as a means of building out audience awareness as much as possible. And even though editing them turned into a surreal experience, Koman is happy they got the shot at doing it. 

"I really like that they can both exist," he says.

Season 1 of The Paper is now streaming on Peacock. Season 2 will premiere in September.