San Diego’s favorite son is back, only this time he’s taking on the Big Apple and the 24-hour cable news cycle.

“Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues” is the long awaited sequel to the 2004 hit comedy “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” starring Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell and David Koechner.

While the idea for a sequel was first proposed back in 2008 by Ferrell and director Adam McKay, conflicts with Paramount Pictures stalled the project for a few years, despite Ferrell and several others willing to take pay cuts to try and trim the budget.

Things looked bleak when Ferrell told fans back in 2011 that Paramount had decided to pass on the project, only to change their minds a year later. McKay and Ferrell quickly got to work on the script and the key players of the original cast signed on to the sequel.

One of the reasons why the first “Anchorman” was so successful was because of the outrageous humor and situations revolving around a local TV anchorman and his news posse. In the sequel, the wild shenanigans and ridiculous scenarios are back in full force, causing even the most critical of critics to smile and laugh.

Basically, the viewer knows what they’re getting if they’ve seen the first “Anchorman,” for it’s not exactly “Sophie’s Choice.”

Taking place after the events of the first film, Ron Burgundy (Ferrell) and his wife Veronica Corningstone (Applegate) are the first married co-anchor news team who are now reporting the news from New York City. Veteran news anchor Mack Harken (Harrison Ford) plans on retiring and needs to find his replacement and narrows it down between Burgundy and Corningstone. He hires Corningstone and fires Burgundy, causing the couple to split because Burgundy can’t handle being number two.

Defeated, Burgundy heads back to San Diego to work as a master of ceremonies at Sea World, while trying to drink away his problems. After being approached by a cable news producer who offers him a job at the first ever 24-hour news channel GNN, Burgundy decides to accept the offer on the condition that he can bring his old news team to New York with him.

Tracking down his faithful friends Champ Kind, Koechner, Brian Fantana (Rudd) and Brick Tamland (Carell), the ex-Channel Four News Team moves out to New York to take on the chaotic 1980s cable news scene.

Watching the news team try to adjust to their new environment provides plenty of laughs, for while they used to be the top rated news team back in San Diego, now they’re small fish in a much bigger pond.

Their new African-American boss Linda Jackson (Meagan Good) finds them to be completely ignorant as they are incompetent, but the ratings say otherwise. Pretty soon Burgundy finds himself competing with his ex-wife Corningstone for the top spot in cable news.

While this is your standard screwball comedy on the surface, “Anchorman 2” does provide some commentary on present day news stations and the tactics they use to keep the viewers watching.

Burgundy starts to pioneer news that people want to watch, including car chases and cute animal videos: things that we witness every day on a typical news cycle. One could blame Burgundy for being the patient zero of why our news nowadays is so sensationalized and sometimes flat-out ridiculous with the stories they decide to report on.

Like with the first “Anchorman” there are several surprise cameos in this film as well so be sure to keep your eyes peeled. They had a bigger budget for special effects too, for some of the action scenes are comically insane in nature.

With a budget of $50 million, “Anchorman 2” will without a doubt be a box office success. The first film received such a cult following after its release that many people have been waiting in anticipation for this sequel for a very long time.

Will there be a third movie somewhere down the line? Probably. Hopefully we won’t have to wait another decade before it comes to fruition.

You stay classy, Ron Burgundy.