‘The Newsreader’: Sam Reid Looks Back on Season 1 Dale & Helen

U.S. audiences know Sam Reid as Interview With the Vampire‘s Lestat, but they’re about to meet the character he’s known for in his homeland of Australia. Reid plays Dale Jennings opposite Anna Torv‘s Helen Norville in The Newsreader, an award-winning original series from Australia’s ABC TV that first debuted in 2021. Its third and final season premieres on February 2, 2025 in Australia, but Interview With the Vampire‘s streaming home, AMC+, is bringing The Newsreader to eager fans next week as part of a new licensing agreement.

Starting Thursday, December 19 and going through January 23, Sundance Now will release one episode of The Newsreader Season 1 per week. Sundance Now titles are available to AMC+ subscribers. As of the time of publication, Sundance Now and AMC+ will only have Season 1, but Season 2 could possibly come to the streaming service in the future. (Season 1 was previously available on The Roku Channel and ARTE in English for a limited time.)

The Newsreader is set in the maelstrom of commercial television newsrooms in 1986 Australia. In Season 1, Dale is a diligent young reporter, desperate to become a newsreader. Helen is a notoriously “difficult” star newsreader determined to build credibility. After Dale is assigned to be Helen’s producer by their ill-tempered boss, Lindsay (William McInnes), an unexpected connection quickly grows, giving them a support system both in and out of the newsroom that they each desperately needed.