‘Great News’ Season 2 Casts ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Alum Rashad Jennings

“Dancing with the Stars” alum Rashad Jennings has been cast in Season 2 of NBC’s “Great News.”

Jennings will appear as Portia’s (Nicole Richie) football player fiancé in episode 6 of the new season, series creator Tracey Wigfield revealed in a recent interview with Variety.

The impending introduction of Portia’s fiancé was first announced by Wigfield during an interview with TV Guide last month. At the time, Wigfield said that Portia’s fiancé will make friends with her fellow news anchor, Chuck (John Michael Higgins), as both guys share some interesting similarities.

Wigfield, who also plays “The Breakdown” resident meteorologist, Beth, on the newsroom sitcom, said that Portia’s fiancé strikes up an “epic bromance” with Chuck after the athlete is suspended from football and finds himself in a “lonely, vulnerable place.” Because Chuck is also “kind of a lonely successful man aging out of his field,” the news anchor quickly establishes a connection with the football player.

As fans might already know, Portia’s fiancé isn’t the only new character that will be shaking up the dynamic between the show’s original characters. As previously reported, Tina Fey, who is also an executive producer on the show, is set to recur as new MMN boss Diana St. Tropez in the new season. Additionally, Season 2 will also see the introduction of Katie’s new love interest, Jeremy (Reid Scott).

“We really wanted to tell stories with our people but we were able to get a bunch of cool guest stars that set our characters off on stories in different ways,” Wigfield told Variety. “In our first three episodes, Tina’s character comes in and shakes things up at the show and is a mentor-figure for Katie (Briga Heelan) and gets into a feud with Portia. We utilized her character well to define what was going on with all of our series regulars. We have a love interest for Katie played by Reid Scott from ‘Veep.’ He’s a New York Times reporter who looks down at Katie for working in cable news. Over the course of a couple episodes, they get close and start dating. We were looking for a fun love interest for her to play against Greg (Adam Campbell).”

Jennings, who previously played for the Oakland Raiders and the New York Giants, won the 24th season of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.” He also appeared as himself in an episode of Starz’s “Power” in 2016.

“Great News” airs Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. EDT on NBC.