Apple TV+ has renewed its Jason Sudeikis soccer comedy from prolific showrunner Bill Lawrence for a second season. The tech giant says the 10-episode series from Warner Bros. TV and Universal TV will return in 2021.
The news arrives days after the series launched its first three episodes on the subscription platform. Episode four launches Friday.
While Apple, like other streamers, does not release traditional viewership data, sources familiar with the show’s launch said Ted Lasso ranked as the top program on the platform in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Germany, Mexico, France and Canada, among other territories, with the vast majority of viewers watching all three episodes available.
Co-created, co-written and executive produced by the Saturday Night Live alum and Lawrence, Ted Lasso sees Sudeikis step back into his role as the titular all-American football coach who is hired to manage an English football club — despite having no soccer coaching experience at all. The character was first created in 2013 as part of promotional videos for NBC Sports. The series marks Sudeikis’ first TV series-regular role since he departed SNL in 2013.
Lawrence, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter podcast TV’s Top 5, said Ted Lasso will not be among the programs that write the novel coronavirus pandemic into its scripts. “When we shot it the first time, this wasn’t on our radar,” he said. “If [COVID-19] is still a day-to-day issue when a second season would come out … people are going to want escapist entertainment. … Half-empty stadiums with Zoom crowds? It’s too weird to even be writing.”
(Excerpt) Read more in: The Hollywood Reporter