Ted Lasso co-creators/stars Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt have spoken in multiple interviews about how they’d conceived the comedy series for a three-season run. As the Apple TV+ hit is headed to Season 3, the original vision has not changed, series executive producer/showrunner Bill Lawrence told Deadline in an exclusive post-mortem interview about the Season 2 finale.
“What’s tough to process for me as a writer who is used to writing network comedy, is, this was the end of the season, but the midway point of the show,” the veteran broadcast creator behind series like Scrubs and Cougar Time, told Deadline’s Mike Fleming in the interview, which you can read here, along with a recap of the Season 2 finale.
Lawrence conformed that when he and Ted Lasso co-creators Sudeikis, Hunt and Joe Kelly pitched the show, “we said this series was only going to be three seasons.”
Ted Lasso went on to become a commercial and critical hit. It is believed to be Apple TV+’s most popular series and just won seven Emmys for its first season, including Outstanding Comedy Series. While the massive success has not changed the original plan, it has opened the door to continuing the show beyond Season 3.
“I would probably stay clean and say that even if Ted Lasso goes on, the story the writing staff has been telling had a beginning, middle and end for the first three seasons,” Lawrence said. “And then it might veer off from that.”
Lawrence also provided a target date for the Season 3 premiere.
“We always try to be close to a year apart, so I would hope to see the show back in the August type area,” he said, noting that the show had to work around the Olympics in its Season 2 release plans.
The end of Season 2 left two popular Ted Lasso characters, team therapist Sharon (Season 2 series regular Sarah Niles) and The Independent sports writer Trent Crimm (Season 1 and 2 recurring guest star James Lance) at crossroads and seemingly out of the picture.
Lawrence confirmed that “both of them have significant roles next year.”