Apple TV+'s 'Ted Lasso' may only last three seasons

AppleInsider

The popular Apple TV+ sports comedy "Ted Lasso" may not be a long-running show for the service, with its creator suggesting it would most likely end after three seasons.

Apple has already bought into three seasons of the sports-comedy series by Jason Sudeikis, Bill Lawrence, Joe Kelly, and Brendan Hunt, but it seems that may be the entirety of the story for "Ted Lasso." In a podcast, Lawrence offered that the show probably won't go beyond the third season at all.

In a discussion about the Disney+ show "The Mandalorian" on the Fake Doctors, Real Friends podcast, Lawrence mentioned there was a difficulty in creating a second season of a show if everyone loved watching the first, reports ComicBook.com. When the attention turned to "Ted Lasso," Lawrence said it wasn't as much of a problem as it was a show designed to be finite.

"I think that ours is a little different because Jason, as he's kind of mapping it out, it's a three-season show," offered Lawrence. "So, superfans know that [The Mandalorian is] connecting tissue in the Star Wars universe, and for us, everybody knows that they get an end to this story in the third season."

"Ted Lasso is a three-season show. After the third season, I will desperately try to get Mr. Sudeikis to do a..." he continued before proposing "The only way I think a fourth season of Ted Lasso exists would be if TL went and coached a soccer team that played about a block from Jason's house in real life, you know what I mean? He's got young kids."

So far, there has yet to be a start date for filming the second season. Given the popularity of the show, it is likely to air in mid to late 2021.

llama

If they can keep the quality of season 1 in seasons 2 and 3 I will be more than satisfied.  I didn't expect to like Ted Lasso, but man am I glad that I gave it a watch.

randominternetperson

Good plan.  Too many shows overstay their welcome.  After 3 seasons the fish-out-of-water element will be completely gone.

I would point to Friday Night Lights as a sports-centered TV show that lost its rudder after a few season (high school kids graduate. who knew?).

george kaplan

llama said:

If they can keep the quality of season 1 in seasons 2 and 3 I will be more than satisfied.  I didn't expect to like Ted Lasso, but man am I glad that I gave it a watch.

Season 1 was a gift. I don’t want to be greedy, so 3 would be perfect.

Eric_WVGG

Is literally anything on AppleTV+ popular?

Everyone is talking about Mandalorian, Queen’s Gambit, Succession… American pop culture was nearly dominated by Game of Thrones for years… I haven't seen a single tweet about even one AppleTV+ show.

I don't think I could even name one except for Emma, and that’s only because I personally find the whole idea of it so preposterous

llama

Eric_WVGG said:

I haven't seen a single tweet about even one AppleTV+ show. 

Surely you've seen a tweet about what a letdown "See" was though, right?  

Scot1

Eric_WVGG said:

Is literally anything on AppleTV+ popular?

Everyone is talking about Mandalorian, Queen’s Gambit, Succession… American pop culture was nearly dominated by Game of Thrones for years… I haven't seen a single tweet about even one AppleTV+ show.

I don't think I could even name one except for Emma, and that’s only because I personally find the whole idea of it so preposterous

For all mankind was pretty spectacular. 

dewme

Eric_WVGG said:

Is literally anything on AppleTV+ popular?

Everyone is talking about Mandalorian, Queen’s Gambit, Succession… American pop culture was nearly dominated by Game of Thrones for years… I haven't seen a single tweet about even one AppleTV+ show.

I don't think I could even name one except for Emma, and that’s only because I personally find the whole idea of it so preposterous

Gotta put it in perspective. Despite Apple's profitability and mindshare domination in some markets, they are very much the new kid on the block when it comes to content creation. It's obvious to me that Apple is currently overspending on talent acquisition because they want to build credibility fast and believe that teaming up with the cream of the crop names in the industry will accelerate their growth and set a higher standard for quality. Unfortunately for Apple, they simply do not have the mega franchises that content owners like Disney+ have, or even the new wave budding franchises that HBO, Netflix, and even Hulu are growing.

It will simply take time and quite frankly, Apple may never achieve top tier status if they try to go head-to-head against heavy hitters like Disney from the start. Apple needs to find their niche and place in this domain, not just sling around a lot of cash to get the big names in their camp. I hope they are taking a long term approach and figuring out exactly what they, as Apple, uniquely bring to the game and build upon this in a highly focused way.

Think about it. If Disney suddenly decided that it "needed" to be in the smartphone business, what would most people think? I'd bet the initial reaction would be WTF??? We all love Apple, but they have to prove themselves in every market that they intend to serve. Having a fat wallet doesn't prove that you deserve to play they game you've thrown yourself into. I hate to use the "What would Steve Jobs do?" argument, but if Steve Jobs was the driving force behind Apple's push into content creation I would feel much differently. But without Steve at the helm I think that today's Apple must absolutely prove that it belongs in the content creation business. I think they are doing okay, but okay might not be good enough against the likes of Disney.

Eric_WVGG

Scot1 said:

Eric_WVGG said:

Is literally anything on AppleTV+ popular?

Everyone is talking about Mandalorian, Queen’s Gambit, Succession… American pop culture was nearly dominated by Game of Thrones for years… I haven't seen a single tweet about even one AppleTV+ show.

I don't think I could even name one except for Emma, and that’s only because I personally find the whole idea of it so preposterous

For all mankind was pretty spectacular. 

Okay, well that’s an excellent point. I’m a huge Ronald Moore fan. DS9 and the Galactica reboot are some of the best televised sci-if of all time. I do not know a single person who has even heard of All Mankind. I’m not talking about quality here, but popularity. 

randominternetperson

Eric_WVGG said:

Scot1 said:

Eric_WVGG said:

Is literally anything on AppleTV+ popular?

Everyone is talking about Mandalorian, Queen’s Gambit, Succession… American pop culture was nearly dominated by Game of Thrones for years… I haven't seen a single tweet about even one AppleTV+ show.

I don't think I could even name one except for Emma, and that’s only because I personally find the whole idea of it so preposterous

For all mankind was pretty spectacular. 

Okay, well that’s an excellent point. I’m a huge Ronald Moore fan. DS9 and the Galactica reboot are some of the best televised sci-if of all time. I do not know a single person who has even heard of All Mankind. I’m not talking about quality here, but popularity. 

I think you're taking an unnecessarily and inaccurately bleak view.  Mandalorian and Game of Throne were cultural phenomena.  While you can aspire to that, you can count on it.  Both were based on existing IP with substantial fan bases.  Queen's Gambit and Succession aren't even in that ball park.  Personally, I don't know anyone talking about those shows.  But I do appreciate that they have some buzz in the media and social media.

In my experience 80% of the content on Apple TV+ would get a rating of at least B and they have a bunch of shows I am completely hooked on.  I expect there are tens of millions of people in the same camp.  Of course Disney and Netflix have hundreds of millions, and HBO Max will join that club with all the new exclusive first-run movie content.  Apple is doing well--not amazing--but good.  They are advertising quite heavily and I expect they will get a significant boost when all the new shows drop over the next month or two.

I'd compare Apple TV+ favorably to CBS Now (or whatever it's called) that has all the Star Trek content and 3 exclusive Star Trek spin offs.  I have almost no buzz about those shows or that "channel" but I'm sure they are doing well.

I hope Foundation is awesome.  That could be the Westworld for Apple TV (again, shooting for GoT or Mando would be crazy talk).  

jcs2305

Eric_WVGG said:

Is literally anything on AppleTV+ popular?

Everyone is talking about Mandalorian, Queen’s Gambit, Succession… American pop culture was nearly dominated by Game of Thrones for years… I haven't seen a single tweet about even one AppleTV+ show.

I don't think I could even name one except for Emma, and that’s only because I personally find the whole idea of it so preposterous

I heard about Ted Lasso and Servant by word of mouth.  I don't follow twitter enough to talk about tweets,  but Jason Sudakis has an official Ted Lasso twitter account and there has 50K+ followers?  It also has a 90% critic rating and a 98% audience rating on rotten tomatoes.  We watched the Servant and are looking forward to the next season.. and we are currently half way through Ted Lasso and enjoying it very much.

entropys

Maybe for a fourth season the director could have Ted put on a leather jacket and board shorts and ski jump over a Shark. That will bring the audiences in.

the best thing about a decent streaming service is a season is a story. Novel and entertaining variety encouraging subscriptions beats milking shows for season after season for advertising $.

CarmB

Delays caused by covid-19 have altered the planned trajectory but I think Apple is taking the right approach of focusing on original content. Apple TV+ has a better chance of succeeding as a compliment to whatever other streaming service consumers choose to subscribe to rather than compete against them. Volume we have plenty of thanks to services like Disney Plus, Netflix and so on. In addition, some consumers, myself included, have a library of movies already amassed that can rival the content offered via legacy streaming. Apple itself makes that more worthwhile by often offering decent legacy titles at a low price ($5 here in Canada) which gives you the ability to download and retain an HD version and have access to streaming of 4K versions where available. Apple even upgrades consumers to having access to the 4K/HDR versions automatically at no charge. Older consumers in particular have likely amassed quite a few legacy titles. 

So if Apple is savvy enough to keep the cost reasonable and it generates a decent slate of original content, it’s something well worth bringing to the mix. To date, in my first year of free access, I have enjoyed The Morning Show (starts off slow but by the end of the first season proves compelling), For All Mankind (an alternate universe entry that initially, at least, isn’t burdened by trying to conjure up some elaborate explanation for the alternate reality’s existence), Servant (appropriately creepy though I wonder how long the show will be of interest), Ted Lasso (surprising depth and well done), Defending Jacob (solid), See (kidding, haven’t bothered to check it out), Before Dark (liked it more than I thought I would), as well as, feature-length entires like The Banker and Greyhound. Still haven’t checked out On the Rocks but it looks promising. There is other content still on my list of items worth checking out.

It only gets better from here since the catalogue will obviously grow and while there isn’t yet a major hit to draw attention, I can say I have used Apple TV+ a lot more than Disney Plus and roughly about the same as Netflix and Amazon Prime. Speaking of Netflix, the cost has climbed so much that I now carry it for a few months of the year rather than pay for 12 months worth at such a high cost ($18.99 a month in Canada to access 4K and HDR versions). It’s especially annoying that Netflix forces consumers to opt for a pricey top tier to be able to watch at the highest resolution whereas the others really only have a single tier at a lower price point. 

Others may be of a different view, but for me, Apple TV+ is of more use to me if it keeps the cost down for original content mainly, rather than load up on legacy titles to justify charging more. Legacy I’ve got covered. I want new stuff and to have the option of paying just for that content. My movie library is approaching 700 titles. What I like is that if my finances required it, I could stop subscribing to streaming services and yet not lack for decent content. It wouldn’t surprise me if it is Apple’s intent to offer legacy content via a low-cost purchase model as opposed to charge a monthly fee to stream it. Works for me and I’m sure it does the trick for many others as well.