Jason Sudeikis was a regular presence on the small screen for a decade thanks to his role on Saturday Night Live, and he's now poised to return to TV for the first time since leaving SNL back in 2013. Sudeikis will actually reprise a role for the new show, but not one of those most famous from his SNL days. Rather, he'll be playing Coach Ted Lasso for an Apple TV+ series, fittingly called Ted Lasso.
In case you're not familiar with Ted Lasso, here's what you need to know. The character was created for NBC promotional videos back in 2013 and showcased Jason Sudeikis, then famous for NBC's Saturday Night Live, as an American football coach who heads across the pond to coach a very different kind of football: soccer!
The Ted Lasso TV show won't air on NBC or head to the Peacock streaming service, as you might have expected of a show starring an SNL alum based on videos originally produced for NBC Sports, so it should be interesting to see how Apple's Ted Lasso compares to NBC's Ted Lasso.
The description of the series certainly suggests that fans can expect the same premise. For the show, Jason Sudeikis is idealistic and very American football coach Ted Lasso, who is hired to manage an English football club even though he has no experience in coaching soccer. Ted Lasso received a straight-to-series order from Apple, so viewers can at least count on a lot more than could be packed into one of the NBC Sports videos.
In case you missed Jason Sudeikis as Ted Lasso the first time around (or just want to experience the comedic joy of the American football coach in London again), take a look:
Jason Sudeikis is on board Ted Lasso as more than just star. He'll also executive produce and write for the series. Joining him as executive producer will be Bill Lawrence, who has plenty of experience in crafting hit TV shows thanks to his work on Spin City and Scrubs. Sudeikis and Lawrence co-wrote the pilot together.
As somebody who loved the Ted Lasso videos, I do have my doubts about how well the character can anchor an ongoing series, no matter how talented Jason Sudeikis is. There's a lot of comedy to be mined out of an American football coach trying and not really succeeding at coaching British soccer; is it enough to sustain a show, or was Ted Lasso best left to a character starring in the occasional short promotional video?
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I think a lot will depend on the cast that Ted Lasso finds to surround Jason Sudeikis. SNL fans from his era know that he's a great comedic actor, and he was enough to anchor the web videos, but the show will need a strong cast of characters and actors bringing them to life. It would be fun if Apple and Sudeikis could recruit some of his fellow SNL alums to appear on Ted Lasso.
Apple has not revealed when Ted Lasso can be expected to debut, but the Apple TV+ streaming service goes live at the cost of $5 per month on Friday, November 1. Jason Momoa's See looks nearly as epic as Game of Thrones, and I'm guessing that will be one of the first projects a lot of subscribers check out next month. Also premiering when the service goes live are Jennifer Aniston and Steve Carell's super expensive The Morning Show, Battlestar Galactica's Ronald D. Moore's For All Mankind, and the Emily Dickinson-inspired Dickinson.
