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Spielberg, Big Bird and Hollywood's top tier introduce Apple TV Plus

Turns out a billion dollars gets a few big names to show up.

Richard Trenholm Former Movie and TV Senior Editor
Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
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Richard Trenholm

The big guns are out for Apple's new TV Plus streaming service. Steven Spielberg, JJ Abrams, Reese Witherspoon and many more of today's biggest filmmakers showed up to Monday's launch to tout new Apple shows.

Spielberg led a number of stars who actually took to the stage at the launch of the new streaming platform, officially announcing his fantasy anthology series Amazing Stories.

Watch this: Steven Spielberg teases Amazing Stories reboot on Apple TV Plus

Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston stepped up to intro their series, The Morning Show, joined by co-star Steve Carell. Jason Momoa exploded on stage to talk about his project See, in which the human race collectively loses its sight, while Kumail Nanjiani outlined his anthology series Little America

The parade of luminaries was rounded out by Big Bird, announcing a new kids show from the makers of Sesame Street, followed by Sara Bareilles singing the theme song for her show Little Voice.

Apple CEO Tim Cook then returned to the stage to emotionally introduce one more voice: Oprah Winfrey, who is producing two documentaries and a book club for the streaming service.

Celebrities show off their new series on Apple TV Plus

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Apple is reported to be betting $1 billion on the streaming service in a challenge to rivals Netflix and Amazon. We'll see that money up on the screen in shows by Apple's army of big names, which also includes launch event no-shows Ron Howard, M. Night Shyamalan, Damien Chazelle and Sofia Coppola. Guess they were busy being not quite famous enough.

Be sure to check out everything Apple has announced at Monday's event.