‘Ted Lasso’s Jason Sudeikis Defends Season 3 Amid Criticism: “I’ll Never Understand People Who Will Go On Talking About Something So Brazenly That They, In My Opinion, Clearly Don’t Understand”

Ted Lasso star and co-creator Jason Sudeikis has some strong opinions about criticism the Apple TV+ comedy received in its third season.

Sudeikis made his comments in response to Jeremy Egner’s new book Believe: The Untold Story Behind Ted Lasso, the Show That Kicked Its Way Into Our Hearts, which hit shelves today.

As reported by Deadline’s sister site TVLine, Sudeikis responded to Egner’s suggestion that “a small but hostile group of dissenters’ complained that “the core cast had been scattered into different storylines, and specifically, that Keeley and Nate’s respective storyline had become too “unfocused.”

“Much like live theater, the show, especially Season 3, was asking the audience to be an active participant,” Sudeikis said. “Some people want to do that, some people don’t. Some people want to judge—they don’t want to be curious,” the opposite of Coach Lasso’s belief in Walt Whitman’s quote “be curious, not judgmental.”

“I’ll never understand people who will go on talking about something so brazenly that they, in my opinion, clearly don’t understand,” Sudeikis continues. “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.

“Everybody’s in better shape than when they started,” Sudeikis says of the characters and the resolutions of their storylines. “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.”

It hasn’t been clear whether Ted Lasso will go on to a fourth season, but as Deadline reported in August, it was moving in that direction.

The series’ studio Warner Bros. Television had picked up the options on the three original cast members who had been contracted under the aegis of the UK acting union Equity, sources told Deadline. They are Hannah Waddingham, who plays AFC Richmond owner Rebecca Walton, Brett Goldstein, who plays hardman Roy Kent and Jeremy Swift, who plays Director of Football Operations Leslie Higgins.

Reps for WBTV and Apple TV+ declined comment to Deadline’s story.

The cast have all said repeatedly that they would be happy to reprise their roles if an opportunity arises. 

Ted Lasso earned 13 Emmy Awards during its original three-season run, including two back-to-back Outstanding Comedy Series trophies and acting wins for Sudeikis (2), Goldstein (2), who is also a writer-producer on the show, and Waddingham.