Jason Sudeikis isn’t interested in hearing from fans who were unhappy with the third season of Ted Lasso.
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In an interview with Jeremy Egner for his new book on the Apple TV series, Believe: The Untold Story Behind Ted Lasso, the Show That Kicked Its Way Into Our Hearts, Sudeikis, 49, responded to “a small but vocal group of dissenters” who didn’t appreciate the “unfocused” storylines in Season 3 of the 13-time winning Emmy show.
Sudeikis, who co-created the series that centred on a hapless American football coach-turned-English soccer manager, disagreed with fans who were critical and said some viewers lack “imaginations.”
“Much like live theatre, the show, especially Season 3, was asking the audience to be an active participant,” Sudeikis replied, according to TVLine. “Some people want to do that, some people don’t. Some people want to judge — they don’t want to be curious.”
The Saturday Night Live alum said that audience members who were unhappy that “the core cast had been scattered into different storylines” didn’t realize the arc he and co-creator Bill Lawrence (Shrinking, Spin City, Scrubs, Cougar Town) were trying to draw for the show’s characters.
“Everybody’s in better shape than when they started,” Sudeikis said of how the story resolved itself. “Like a good Boy or Girl Scout at a campsite, we left it better than we found it. And if you don’t see that in that show, then I don’t know what show you’re watching.”
Sudeikis went on to say that people who were unfulfilled by the ending “clearly don’t understand” what the creative team behind Ted Lasso were trying to achieve.
“I’ll never understand people who will go on talking about something so brazenly that they, in my opinion, clearly don’t understand,” Sudeikis continued. “And God bless ’em for it; it’s not their fault. They don’t have imaginations and they’re not open to the experience of what it’s like to have one.”
Season 3 of Ted Lasso was supposed to be the dramedy’s last. But back in August, Variety and Deadline reported that the show was on the verge of being renewed with Warner Bros. Television picking up options on several of Sudeikis’ co-stars, including Hannah Waddingham (Rebecca Welton), Brett Goldstein (Roy Kent) and Jeremy Swift (Leslie Higgins).
Earlier this year, Warner Bros. TV CEO Channing Dungey also teased the possibility of the series continuing after last year’s finale.
“I mean, you watched the finale, there’s a little bit of a door that could be kicked back open if need be,” Dungey said. “I wouldn’t put the period on the end of that sentence just yet. There is still a lot of love for Ted Lasso. And I think that there still is a lot of enthusiasm on the part of Apple for Ted Lasso. Should the opportunity arise, we’d be excited to jump back in to making more … There are always conversations that are ongoing, just nothing that’s official.”
But Lawrence said that Sudeikis, who won four Emmys for the show, will have the final say if the Apple TV+ series continues.
“Whatever Jason feels like doing and whatever his decision is, we’re all down with it,” Lawrence told Collider in August. “Not only is he the star, he’s the head writer, and he’s also the dude whose life just has to be completely overhauled and moved to a foreign country with young children.”
Lawrence continued, “It’s a big deal. So, as a fan, if someone’s like, ‘Oh, it’s gonna happen again,’ I’ll go nuts. As a partner, I’m down for whatever he wants to do.”
Ted Lasso became a TV hit for Apple when it launched in 2020 after Sudeikis decided to spin off a character he created to help NBC Sports promote English Premier League soccer over a decade ago.
Fleshed out from Sudeikis’ NBC commercials, Ted Lasso told the story of a wise-cracking college football coach from Kansas who is hired by an English soccer club to lead their team back to glory on the pitch, despite having no knowledge of the game.
“Ted went through some highs and lows in that first commercial,” Sudeikis told Postmedia in a 2020 interview. “But the series became something we felt we could do after doing the second commercial. We had a mix of childlike enthusiasm and unwavering optimism that I always felt, as they say in show business, gave it legs.”
But after the first season proved to be one of 2020’s most-talked about shows, Sudeikis struggled to answer why so many people fell in love with Ted when we spoke the following year.
“I wish I knew. I’d like to think that some of the things we had creative control over, like making intentional choices with the way we told the story and hiring really great people in front of and behind the camera had something to do with it. I think it was the right amount of alchemy between those elements and old-fashioned good luck,” he said.
Ted Lasso Season 1-3 is now streaming on Apple TV+.