Chad Powers has taken the world by storm, evolving from a hilarious skit into a full-fledged TV series.
The series "Chad Powers" premiered on Hulu on September 30, 2025. The series is based off a segment Eli Manning did on his ESPN show Eli's Places where he went to a Penn State tryout under the identity of a college football walk-on named "Chad Powers."
The show follows disgraced quarterback Russ Holliday, who goes undercover as Chad Powers to try out for the South Georgia football team. But will all the lies finally catch up to him?
The Premise: A Second Chance at Glory
Powell plays Russ Holliday, a washed-up football player whose showboating ruined his career. In a desperate bid for a second chance, Holliday creates a new persona, Chad Powers, and rejoins the world of college football.
The series stars Powell, Steve Zahn, Toby Huss, Perry Mattfeld, Wynn Everett, Frankie A. Rodriguez, Clayne Crawford, Colton Ryan, Keese Wilson, Xavier Mills, and Quentin Plair.
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Inspired by the character made famous by Eli Manning, the show follows disgraced quarterback Russ Holliday. He goes undercover to try out and eventually walk onto the South Georgia football team following a devastating loss nearly a decade ago at the Rose Bowl.
Humor and Heart: Is Chad Powers a Good TV Show?
Is Chad Powers a good TV show? Two episodes in, I’m not sure, but it has already received numerous positive reviews. To me, it feels like a brute-force attempt to recapture the heart and joy of the Jason Sudeikis series through over-the-top musical cues and unearned emotional moments. Based on what I’ve seen, I remain skeptical of its ability to suss out those kinds of emotions from such an unlikable protagonist.
And just like the winning plays on the field, every episode is filled with inspiring (and sometimes hilarious) one-liners.
Previews: Trailer
Chad Powers | Season Finale Oct 28 | Hulu
Character Analysis
Almost as interesting as the show is the time at which it’s been brought to the world.
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Within the first two scenes of the show, we learn that Russ Holliday (Glen Powell) is a douchebag of the highest order. In the first scene, we understand this literally when he grandstands to cost his team the Rose Bowl and then punches the father of a child dying from cancer. In the second scene, Holliday’s douchebaggery is driven home by several indicators.
First hearing that the school is called Southern Georgia and their mascot is the Catfish, one imagines a small-time college football program in the vein of The Waterboy’s South-Central Louisiana State Mud Dogs, steeped in Southern culture and featuring a ragtag collection of regional stereotypes.
The head coach, played by Steve Zahn (who better be well-paid for all of this), is a big pushover. His presumably FBS-level coaching staff includes his daughter, Ricky (played by Perry Mattfeld).
Southern belle Tricia (Wynn Everett) is supposed to represent the power-hungry boosters, but she clearly comes with a heart of gold that will undoubtedly unfurl in the coming episodes. Even Gerry Dougan (Colton Ryan), the God-loving sweetheart who wants to be everyone’s friend and help whenever he can, is at odds with the current conservative-minded notions of aggro-masculinity and good vs.
Key Character Traits:
- Russ Holliday/Chad Powers: A disgraced quarterback seeking redemption.
- Ricky: The coach's daughter, caught between loyalty and the truth.
- Gerry Dougan: A kind-hearted teammate who suspects Chad's true identity.
Themes and Social Commentary
It would have been decidedly easy for Chad Powers to lean into the current American drumbeat and see the main character’s macho ostentatiousness as a positive or a norm worth striving for. Instead, and here’s where the show really gets interesting, it does the opposite.
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These are all presented as examples to show us he sucks as a human being. What’s fascinating about those choices is that, if you allow me to generalize for a moment, these examples are all very conservative-coded.
Both of the first two episodes make a particular meal out of Holliday’s COVID denial and conspiratorial thinking. At a time when a large percentage of Americans are skeptical of vaccines and voted for an administration that spouts conspiracy theories as policy, that’s notable.
It’s worth noting that Holliday lives in Los Angeles with a father who works in the entertainment industry, specifically in Hollywood. While certainly not unheard of, it’s not what we typically associate with conservative-coded locations.
So disconnected is the football program from its stereotypical regional identity that when Holliday’s Chad Powers character is revealed to be a home-schooled West Virginia kid who spent most of his life becoming “one with the woods,” they have no idea what to make of him.
Chad Powers: Tropes and References
Chad Powers includes examples of the following:- Actor IS the Title Character: Per the trailer, “Glen Powell is Chad Powers.”
- Bad Liar: Russ is a horrifically bad liar, with much of the humor in the series coming from his utterly bizarre statements while pretending to be Chad.
- Becoming the Mask: Posing as the humble Chad Powers starts to rub off on Russ's actual personality and he becomes more considerate towards others. As the first season carries on, he gets more extreme in feeling Chad represents an entirely different person and has trouble slipping into and out of the Chad voice when convenient.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Thanks to Russ' terrible improv skills, Chad is known as a very eccentric guy, but also an amazingly skilled quarterback.
- Cliffhanger: Ricky knows Chad is actually Russ Holliday and, while she hates him for deceiving everyone, she's forced to keep it a secret so South Georgia and her dad don't get in trouble with the NCAA. Meanwhile, Gerry is now suspicious of Chad's recent behavior and it's implied he's going to try to uncover what's going on himself.
- Company Cross-References: Russ compares his Chad Powers disguise as “Mrs. Doubtfire but with football” - in that he is using a prosthetic-heavy disguise to get his old life back.
- Did Not Think This Through: Russ did not think through Chad's backstory very well, being unsure of everything from his hometown to his last name. He also failed to consider that a major college program like South Georgia would not only want him to provide his identification documents and school transcripts so he can enroll as a student, but that they would also find his lack of social media or high school highlight tape very suspicious in The New '20s.
- Don't Celebrate Just Yet: Russ tanked his career when he cost Oregon a victory in the Rose Bowl by dropping the ball in celebration before he crossed the goal line to score the winning touchdown, allowing Georgia to pick up the fumble and return it for the actual winning score.
- It Was You All Along: Russ realizes that his friendship with Danny, the repairing of his relationship with his dad, and his feelings for Ricky are the things that have really mattered.
- Jerk Jock: Russ was such an asshole during his college football career that his poor attitude (and a highly publicized altercation with a fan) wound up destroying any chance he had of going pro.
- Liar Revealed: Ricky begins to suspect Russ and Chad are one and the same when Chad is able to provide a Cybertruck to bring Coach Hudson to the hospital and claims it belongs to Danny. She confirms her suspicions at the next practice when she removes one of Chad's armbands and discovers Russ's distinctive snake tattoo.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: On a pretty extreme level. This is also a result of Russ not being particularly adept at improvising a new personality.
- Still Got It: Even though Russ hasn't played in eight years and not in the same physical condition he was in college, he can still play quarterback well enough as Chad Powers to earn a spot on the team.
- Vehicle-Based Characterization: Russ is shown driving the infamous Tesla Cybertruck to cement the fact that that he's an arrogant image-obsessed Jerk Jock. He's forced to hide the vehicle from those who know him as the humble Chad Powers.
Quotes from the Chad Powers Universe
Here are some memorable quotes from the Chad Powers universe:
- "It's a combination of Mrs. Doubtfire and Jason from Halloween ..."-- Peyton Manning, on his brother Eli's "Chad Powers" mask during the ManningCast on "Monday Night Football"
- "I don't give a f--- who started it, I finished it. I got the win. I don't deal with moral victories. I don't deal with one-on-one battles because it's not a one-on-one game. ... It's a team effort, and I got a dub. Meet the new face of redemption."
- "Fear's a tricky thing. It makes us believe that it is impossible, it's untenable to lose."
Artistic Intention
So what to make of all this? I’m not entirely sure, other than to bring it back to the original point about artistic intention. Most choices one makes when creating a TV show are deliberate. Just as the Catfish mascot is a nod to what Chad Powers is doing, how that character’s egotistic behavior is framed for the audience is not accidental.
That isn’t to say that Chad Powers is some thoughtful text on the nature of American cultural norms. I was under the impression we’d left TV shows and movies built around gay panic jokes in the 2010s, but they’re alive and well here. I also fear for Danny (Frankie Rodriguez), the gay-coded school mascot who becomes Russ/Chad’s confidant for flimsy reasons.
Ultimately, I’m curious to see where the show takes its lead character and how his experiences not only change him but also how that is reflected in his interests, hobbies, and modes of transportation.
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