What happened to Ned and Mare at the end of The Paper Season 1? Explained

The Paper answers the headline plainly: in the Season 1 finale - Ned Sampson and Mare Pritti finally kiss after the Ohio Journalism Awards, blending professional wins with a personal step that raises workplace stakes. Across The Paper’s 10 episodes, the pair evolve from awkward collaborators into a functioning reporter-editor team, weathering a midseason misunderstanding that resets boundaries. The finale brings the newsroom together at a statewide ceremony, where the underdog Truth Teller collects recognition and momentum.

For viewers, the ending underlines two key points: The Paper still centres on local reporting victories, and the Ned–Mare slow burn now has consequences inside a small office where everyone is watching everything.

This explainer walks through their season-long build, how the awards-night beats unfold, and what the post-kiss reality sets up.

Ned & Mare’s season-long arc: From stings to the “asexual” mix-up

The Paper introduces Ned on day one, eager to turn the Truth Teller back into a local newsroom, and Mare as the only staffer with field experience. Early episodes place them side by side on small-bore assignments that feel like practice reps for trust. In Buddy and the Dude, they test a mattress chain’s price-match promises. Sources note the sting’s ground-level texture, including a saleswoman who remarked,

“I actually hate this job.”

The same piece highlights Mare’s blunt diagnosis of the paper’s output, again, as Mare said,

“It’s local ads with clickbait, and like, four Associated Press stories and sports scores on the cover."

Those field moments define roles: Mare handles the reporting muscle. Ned learns to back her judgment instead of chasing optics. Reviewers also frame Mare as the season’s ballast. She can be described as the straight-ahead journalist amid chaos, and some sources profile Ned’s idealism in a newsroom trying to revive itself.

Midseason, Churnalism and I Love You complicate the pairing. Esmeralda feeds Ned the idea that Mare is “asexual,” and he treats it as fact, which knocks their rapport off course. NBC Insider’s interview with Chelsea Frei, who plays Mare Pritti, spells out why the breach hurts. As per the NBC Insider report dated September 4, 2025, Frei stated,

“I think it’s more so that he didn’t feel comfortable to talk to her about it.”

She added that their bond was built on “transparency and trust.” The lie surfaces, forcing an on-camera reset where they start communicating directly rather than via office gossip.

By Matching Ponchos, they are back on the road together, sharing a long drive to a cult interview and showing they can work closely without rushing romance. Those consecutive hours, the beats fans remember as the quiet prelude, make the finale’s spark feel earned rather than abrupt.

The Paper finale, The Ohio Journalism Awards: What happens, scene by scene, and the kiss

Awards night gathers the team as underdogs. The episode tracks clean A- and B-plots: Ned keeps his competitiveness in check; Nicole and Detrick’s timing misfires; Ken tries to rig a “hero” moment; and Esmeralda chases attention with a showpiece bit. Rotten Tomatoes’ synopsis confirms the board: Ned fighting his urge to win, Mare arriving with a headline-worthy date, Oscar making peace with the cameras, and Ken plotting theatrics.

As the ceremony unfolds, the Truth Teller leaves with wins, which critics read as a tidy payoff to the season’s “local news still matters” thread. On the walkout high, Ned and Mare finally cross the line and kiss, exciting for them, loaded for the office, and the clearest hinge into Season 2.

Coverage of renewal and finale chatter underscores that the kiss will be the fuse for next-season workplace tension, while some sources call the finale a bow that ties the season’s chaos together.

As for texture and dialogue, The Paper threads newsroom realism into comic directness. Ned voicing the industry picture:

“The industry is collapsing like an old smoker’s lung”

and, in the same breath, his plainspoken read of public sentiment:

“people hate reporters right now.”

Those on-screen truths sit in the background of the finale: recognition feels rare and precious, and so does a boundary-crossing moment between colleagues who have earned trust the hard way.

What happened to Ned & Mare at the end, and what does it set up?

They end The Paper Season 1 as colleagues who finally acknowledge mutual attraction after proving they work as a unit. The kiss is not a cliffhanger for chaos. It is a clear pivot that reframes day-to-day beats at a tiny paper where optics, power, and fairness will be under a microscope. Reporting continues. Boundaries now matter more.

Coverage points to a confirmed Season 2, with the finale’s romance and the newsroom’s new prestige setting up storylines about favoritism optics, HR realities, and Esmeralda-stoked spectacle.

For viewers, the answer to the headline, what happened to Ned and Mare, is simple: they won in public, then complicated their private calculus, which The Paper will now have to cover like any workplace story, one meeting, one assignment, one camera-caught glance at a time.

Season 1 of The Paper is streaming on Peacock in the U.S.