‘Chad Powers’ Season 2 Has a Surprising Rotten Tomatoes Score, Critics and Audiences Agree

Glen Powell has built quite the reputation over the past few years for picking projects that shouldn’t work on paper but somehow land anyway. His Hulu sports comedy ‘Chad Powers‘ fit squarely into that category when it debuted, built around the absurd premise of a disgraced quarterback disguising himself in prosthetics to sneak back onto the field.

That gamble paid off with audiences even as critics remained lukewarm, with Season 1 earning a middling 60% from reviewers but a considerably healthier 84% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. The gap suggested viewers were far more willing than critics to embrace Powell’s ridiculous, heartfelt premise, and it was enough to earn the show a quick renewal.

Now Season 2 has arrived, and the reception has flipped entirely. The new season currently holds a perfect 100% on the Tomatometer across nine reviews, alongside a 95% Popcornmeter score from more than 50 audience ratings, suggesting Powell and his team have finally won over the critics who doubted the show the first time around.

That turnaround wasn’t accidental. Speaking about the improved reception, co-creator Michael Waldron told Entertainment Weekly that one review of the first season carried a headline joking the show had nearly driven the critic mad, adding, “This season, we made sure there’s no almost.” Powell echoed that sentiment elsewhere, describing the new season as “a different show in the best way,” according to Entertainment Weekly.

Season 2 picks up directly from the Season 1 cliffhanger, in which Ricky, played by Perry Mattfeld, discovers that Chad Powers is actually disgraced quarterback Russ Holliday hiding behind prosthetic makeup. Rather than resetting that reveal, the new season leans directly into the fallout, with Ricky reluctantly pulled deeper into the cover-up as Russ and his allies scramble to keep Chad eligible and push the South Georgia Catfish toward the college football playoff.

That premise raises the emotional and comedic stakes considerably compared to the show’s fish-out-of-water first season. Coach Hudson and Gerry become increasingly suspicious throughout the six new episodes, adding a slow-burn tension to a show that originally leaned more heavily on broad comedy than sustained intrigue.

The season’s returning principal cast includes Powell, Mattfeld, Quentin Plair, Wynn Everett, Frankie A. Rodriguez and Steve Zahn, with Colin Woodell, Gillian Jacobs, Carey O’Donnell and Nate Varrone joining as guest stars. Woodell plays a wealthy Catfish alumnus named Jay, while Jacobs takes on the role of Gerry’s sister, Jerri Dougan.

‘Chad Powers’ remains inspired by a popular sketch created by Eli Manning that originally aired on ESPN+ as part of “Eli’s Place,” produced through NFL Films and Omaha Productions. Powell co-created the series with Waldron, and both Eli and Peyton Manning continue serving as executive producers alongside a wider team that includes ESPN’s Burke Magnus, Brian Lockhart and Craig Lazarus.

All six episodes of Season 2, titled “7th Quarter” through “12th Quarter,” dropped simultaneously on September 3 on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+. That all-at-once release mirrors the streaming strategy used for the show’s freshman season, giving fans the option to binge through Russ’s latest predicament in one sitting rather than waiting week to week.

The premise remains centered on a former college quarterback attempting a comeback by posing as a walk-on player for a struggling football team, though how much longer that disguise can hold up is very much the driving question of the new season. Given the show’s quick turnaround from renewal to release, less than a year after Season 1 first premiered, it’s clear Hulu is confident in where the story is headed next.

With critics finally coming around and audiences still firmly on board, ‘Chad Powers’ looks to have found its footing heading into its sophomore season.

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