20 years on, Will Ferrell reveals Anchorman had to change its ending after negative test screenings: "We just lost the audience"

Jul. 10, 2024

Anchorman: The Legend of the Original Finale

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

20 years after release, Will Ferrell has revealed that Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy had its ending changed after a negative test screening.

“We put the movie together [and] we did our first test screening,” Ferrell told theMessy podcast(H/TIndieWire), hosted by Anchorman co-star Christina Applegate and The Sopranos’ Jamie-Lynn Sigler. “You test screen your movie and it’s a score from zero to 100. We were like, ‘That seemed to play pretty great.’ We get the score back: it’s a 50. Not good. It’s not good.”

“And that can either go one way or the other. There’s a panic button that’s hit, or, luckily, the studio was like, ‘Let’s figure it out.’ They gave us a budget for reshoots,” Ferrell recalled. “[Producer] Judd [Apatow] really helped to be a steady hand in that regard. And so all of that, the whole pandas and the bears and all that, that’s five days of a re-shoot. An entirely new ending was shot.”

As Ferrell explains, the original ending features Applegate’s KVWN anchor Veronica Corningstone being abducted, something which is described as a “comedic version” of Patty Hearst, the real-life kidnapping of William Hearst’s daughter.

“They just didn’t like that storyline at all,” Ferrell said. “We just lost the audience. When it was the news team and all of us interacting, we would get them back. We had to basically reshoot the ending.”

Will Ferrell, meanwhile, recentlymade a guest cameoinThe Boys season 4as a fictional version of himself acting in a movie alongside A-Train. Stay classy, Vought.

Sign up for the Total Film Newsletter

Bringing all the latest movie news, features, and reviews to your inbox

For more, check outThe Boys season 4 release schedule.

I’m the Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, focusing on news, features, and interviews with some of the biggest names in film and TV. On-site, you’ll find me marveling at Marvel and providing analysis and room temperature takes on the newest films, Star Wars and, of course, anime. Outside of GR, I love getting lost in a good 100-hour JRPG, Warzone, and kicking back on the (virtual) field with Football Manager. My work has also been featured in OPM, FourFourTwo, and Game Revolution.

Sonic 3 stars Keanu Reeves and Idris Elba want to make a Shadow and Knuckles spin-off show – and they already have a fun title in mind

Kraven the Hunter review: “The insistence on an R-rating helps save this, with a decent helping of bloodthirsty action”