Apple TV+'s Breakout Hit Ted Lasso Is Supposed to End After Just 3 Seasons

The writers of Ted Lasso, the Apple TV+ comedy, which stars Jason Sudeikis as a cheerful American football coach leading an English soccer team, have only planned for the series run for three seasons. But now that Apple has already picked up the breakout hit for all three seasons, some of the show’s creators are thinking about ways to extend the life of the feel-good series for even longer. “[We] had a clear three-season story—we know the story that we’re currently telling, we know the beginning and the middle and the end of it,” said Bill Lawrence, who co-created the series with Sudeikis, Joe Kelly and Brendan Hunt. “Is there more story for Ted Lasso beyond that? If you ask me, because I’m still part-producer and businessman at the end, I’m like, 'Yeah! Ted Lasso is going to be a different coach of a different sport every year for the next 50 years. Is that OK?' … We will probably keep going as long as Jason is having a fun time doing it.” Ted Lasso, which was inspired by a fictional character Sudeikis once portrayed in a series of promos for NBC Sports’ coverage of Premier League soccer, debuted quietly last August as another series trickling out on the burgeoning streaming service that had found some smaller successes but no real break-out hit. But amid a Covid-19 summer where viewers were streaming more television than ever and seeking out comfort food entertainment, the heartwarming comedy quickly broke through, and Ted Lasso has since become one of Apple TV+’s most successful shows yet. Last month, Sudeikis received a Golden Globe for the role, marking Apple TV+'s first ever Globe win. 'More than a comedy' “From the very beginning, we realized this show is more than a comedy,” series editor AJ Catoline said. “It had a lot of hearts and a lot of pathos to these characters. And it's just the show is more about these characters going through arcs of their own shame and vulnerability and opening up and authentically relating with each other.” While the show creators and post-production crew knew that they were watching something special while working on the project, the breakthrough is still something of a happy surprise. “If anybody from the show claims that we knew what we were doing or that we knew that this would definitely grab hold and work, we didn’t,” Lawrence said. “We want everyone to know that we are as tickled and surprised as anybody.” Series editor Melissa McCoy said she has received weekly emails from people who wanted to tell her how much the show meant to them—a somewhat unheard of note for a post-production editor to receive. “One day you read the Governor of Massachusetts giving an official speech saying that Americans need to be more like Ted Lasso and be, you know, more curious, less judgmental," Catoline added "We’re more than a comedy show, we’re official government policy. It's amazing how it's resonating.” At least some of that overwhelming resonance the show has enjoyed can be credited to the meticulous way the show is filmed and edited, the panelists attested. Instead of editing episodes as standalones, edits in one episode might affect the changes made to another one to try to build the strongest story the show could tell. “It's a cliche when people say, ‘Oh, it's like a movie,’ but one of the things that we all as a group decided to do early on is [that] if you envision the 10 episodes like one piece, you can kind of go back and collaborate,” Lawrence said. “It’s going to be interesting and tricky to make sure that we still accomplish that this year. I think the quality of the show increased by leaps and bounds because of the collaborative nature.” Having only 10 episodes is also a form of freedom for Lawrence, who created long-running series such as Scrubs, Cougar Town and Spin City and has become accustomed to broadcast-size episode counts. “In all the shows I’ve created before this, you can trace some arcs, but you’re just trying to survive a 24-episode season without everybody reaching a point that they’re having a nervous breakdown,” Lawrence said.