Sarah Jessica Parker and Jennifer Aniston Competing With Dueling TV Shows: ‘They Never Clicked’

Sarah Jessica Parker is back to shooting the Sex and the City revival, And Just Like That…, and once again going head to head with Jennifer Aniston on The Morning Show. A source exclusively tells Closer the pair’s determination to outshine each other is more out of control than ever.

“These two have met plenty of times but they never clicked, and they’ve been full on rivals since the ’90s when they were constantly pitted against each other,” says a source.

The two stars each skyrocketed to fame in the late ’90s and early 2000s when Sarah, 59, was starring as sex columnist Carrie Bradshaw on the original HBO series Sex and the City and Jennifer, 55, was playing the fashion-forward Rachel Green on the hit sitcom Friends.

“After Friends and Sex and the City ended, they were up for a lot of the same movie roles, which only added to the competition between them,” the insider reveals. “They both said catty things about each other and of course the gossip traveled.”

After both of their popular television series came to an end in 2004, the famed actresses went on to star in other film and TV projects, and they’re yet again the talk of the town with AJLT and The Morning Show simultaneously on the air.

“One of SJP’s biggest stresses over last season of And Just Like That was how much better The Morning Show did with fans and critics,” says the source. “She came in with the intention to show Jen up and it just didn’t happen. But she’s not given up. The next season of The Morning Show is set to air in 2025 and so is And Just Like That, and this time around SJP is deterring to give Jen a real fight and prove she’s a worthy competitor.”

While neither series has yet to reveal the official premiere dates of their next seasons, the shows are both slated to return next year, and Sarah and Jen are prepared to go head-to-head for viewers’ attention, sources say.

Sarah revealed that AJLT‘s third season has already begun filming, according to the star’s Instagram photo of a pile of scripts. The fourth season of The Morning Show is also reportedly underway.

“Of course, Jen is strutting around feeling more confident than ever,” a source says. “She’s the undisputed queen bee of The Morning Show and she wants to keep it going for many more years to come. It’s fair to say she doesn’t take SJP or her reboot seriously so the pressure is really on SJP to wipe that smug smile off her face.”