Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston Host Good Morning America

The Morning Show, Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon’s new Apple TV project, debuts on November 1st. And as a sort of preview for the highly anticipated series, in which Aniston and Witherspoon play the anchors of a Good Morning America-esque program, the actresses took over the real GMA on Monday. Co-stars including Billy Crudup sat in the audience (Steve Carrell apparently couldn’t make it).

Aniston and Witherspoon delivered some headlines—the release of the new Prince autobiography, a statement from someone close to the Queen—and talked about a few feel-good stories, like a viral dog video and the parents who encouraged their kid to wear a hot dog costume for his school picture. It was standard breakfast hour stuff, and the actual GMA anchors were pretty complimentary. “We can retire now, right?” George Stephanopoulos joked. “We’ll take the rest of the morning off, you take it away!”

“George and I were [backstage] saying, ‘They’re too good,'” said Robin Roberts.

Aniston and Witherspoon also discussed the conception of The Morning Show. “We’ve been talking over the years. We wanted to do something and then this project came along and I called you or you called me and we were like, this is it,” said Witherspoon.

Witherspoon also explained how she ended up as a guest star on Friends. “I just had a baby [daughter Ava Phillippe] so I was watching ‘Friends’ all the time,” she said. “I was sitting the couch thinking, I wish I could be on ‘Friends.’ Then one day my publicist said, ‘Do you want to be Jen Aniston’s sister?’ And I said ‘Yes.'”

“I got there and Jen was so sweet,” she continued. “I was so nervous. She was like, ‘Don’t worry, they like when you mess up.'”

Aniston kindly added that Witherspoon did not, in fact, mess up. Obviously.