Coverage spread: 2 sources — 1 left · 1 right
Lean ratings via AllSides / Media Bias-Fact-Check. How this works.
Where they agree
- Season 4 of “Ted Lasso” premiered on Apple TV+ on Aug. 5, three years after Season 3 ended.
- Ted Lasso returns to coach AFC Richmond, this time leading a newly formed women’s soccer team.
- Series regulars including Rebecca Welton, Keeley Jones, Leslie Higgins and Roy Kent are back for the new season.
Where they differ
- NBC’s TODAY interview focuses on Jason Sudeikis’s own comments, including the backstory of his signature dance move and its link to his “SNL” casting, with little plot detail.
- The New York Post offers a critical review, praising the season’s return to a Season 1-style structure while criticizing a slow, padded premiere.
- Only the Post addresses continuity questions, such as Henry being recast with a new actor and uncertainty over whether Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster) returns.
- The Post situates the show’s return within Apple TV+’s broader content strategy, citing its Emmy history and influence on later Apple originals, a business angle NBC’s piece doesn’t touch.
“Ted Lasso” premiered its fourth season on Apple TV+ on Aug. 5, three years after the show appeared to wrap up, with Jason Sudeikis’s title character coming out of retirement to coach AFC Richmond’s new women’s soccer squad. Sudeikis discussed the new season and its origins in an interview with TODAY, while a New York Post review called the season a rocky start that eventually becomes the show’s strongest stretch since Season 1.
What is Season 4 actually about?
According to the New York Post review, the season opens with Ted back home in Kansas, years removed from his Premier League days, working an ordinary job and raising his son, Henry — now played by Grant Feely, replacing Gus Turner from the first three seasons. Old colleagues Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham), Keeley Jones (Juno Temple) and Leslie Higgins (Jeremy Swift) travel to Kansas and talk Ted into returning to England, this time to lead the club’s newly formed women’s team. Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) is back too, now coaching the men’s side and sharing a facility with Ted’s squad, which keeps his on-again, off-again dynamic with Keeley in the mix.
How does the new season compare to what came before?
The Post’s review argues the show returns to its Season 1 structure: Ted has to build a team of mismatched underdogs and win them over, while side characters wrestle with their own personal storylines. The reviewer says this format works better than the tangled plotting of Seasons 2 and 3, singling out Nate’s (Nick Mohammed) villain arc in those seasons as a low point that Season 4 avoids by leaving Nate out of the premiere entirely. The review does flag one specific problem: the premiere spends close to an hour setting up a premise — Ted coaching the women’s team — that was already spelled out in the show’s own trailers, making that stretch feel unnecessarily slow. Once past that setup, the review says the season regains the show’s original charm while still feeling distinct thanks to new characters and story lines tied to the women’s team, rather than simply repeating old plots.
What did Jason Sudeikis say about the new season?
In his TODAY interview, Sudeikis previewed the season’s premise — Ted returning to coach AFC Richmond’s new women’s league team — and also told the story behind his character’s well-known dance move on the show, which he said originally helped him land a spot on the “Saturday Night Live” cast. The interview did not go into plot detail beyond confirming the coaching setup that the Post’s review also describes.
Is Jamie Tartt coming back?
That remains unclear. The Post notes that Phil Dunster, who played fan-favorite player Jamie Tartt in the original three seasons, has been noncommittal about whether he appears in Season 4, and no other source here confirms his involvement.
Why did the show come back after seeming to end?
“Ted Lasso” ran for three seasons from 2020 to 2023 and was widely treated as a completed story when it ended. A fourth season wasn’t announced until March 2025, and in the show’s own timeline, several years have passed since the Season 3 finale — enough time for Henry to be recast with an older actor and for Ted to have settled into a quieter, football-free life in Kansas before being pulled back in.
Why does this show still matter to Apple TV+?
The Post’s review points out that “Ted Lasso” became a breakout hit after its 2020 debut, amassing 61 Emmy nominations and 13 wins, and is credited with helping establish Apple TV+ as a serious platform for scripted television — paving the way for later Apple shows such as “The Studio” and “Silo.” Its status as one of the streamer’s signature titles is a key reason its return, after a three-year gap and uncertainty about whether it would continue at all, is being treated as a notable television event rather than a routine season premiere.
Sources
Featured photo: Rockybiggs via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)