‘Ted Lasso’ Season 3 Facing Massive Delays Due To Creative Issues, “Super Heated” Salary Battles

Fans of the hit Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso will have to wait a bit longer to see Jason Sudeikis return as the humble American college football coach turned pro soccer coach.

At the 2022 Emmys this week, Jason Sudeikis told the audience during an acceptance speech that “We’ll see you for Season 3, at some point.” If you’re wondering why Sudeikis was being so cryptic about the show’s return, Matt Belloni’s recent report for Puck contains a ton of juicy details about why production on Season 3 of the Emmy-winning sitcom has been significantly delayed.

The forthcoming 12-episode season was supposed to begin filming in September 2021 but was delayed until March 2022, due to star Jason Sudeikis deciding that the show’s scripts “needed a significant rewrite,” according to Belloni’s VERY detailed reporting.

Certain location shoots, including a sequence at the Chelsea Football Club stadium, were complicated following the club’s Russian owner being forced to sell the team over the invasion of Ukraine.

Additionally, the show now requires more post-production time to digitally render the stadiums, which prolongs the editing process. It is also approximately 20 to 30 percent over budget for the third season.

Season 3 marks the first season with Sudeikis, who has previously noted that this was his last season, in charge alongside co-creators Brendan Hunt and Joe Kelly. Executive producer Bill Lawrence, who served as showrunner for the first two seasons, is not on set for Season 3 as he is helming Bad Monkey for Apple TV+ under a deal with Warner Bros. It’s unclear at this time if the show will be renewed after Season 3, or if Sudeikis will move to a supporting role.

Although Ted Lasso streams on Apple TV+, the series has other hands in the pot including Warner Bros. and NBCUniversal as a passive producer since Sudeikis originated his Ted Lasso alter-ego in NBC Sports promos.

Apple licenses the series from Warner Bros. under a deal which has the platform paying the cost of production, plus a set premium, to control global rights and library rights for up to 10 years.

To further add to the behind-the-scenes drama, the show’s cast, including Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein, Juno Temple, Brendan Hunt, Phil Dunster, Nick Mohammed, Toheeb Jimoh, and more, have been locked in to almost exclusively doing the show. Goldstein and Waddingham did appear in Thor: Love and Thunder and Hocus Pocus 2 but only in respective cameo roles.

Sudeikis is said to be making over $1 million per episode for Ted Lasso Season 3 while Goldstein earned only $150,000 per episode for acting during Season 2.

During the 2022 Emmys, Goldstein remarked that “the plan is entirely in Jason’s hands” as far as when the series will end.

“I know all of us would happily do this for 20 years,” Goldstein said. “And then say, ‘Maybe we need to wrap this up, because these footballers are all on crutches.’ It’s entirely up to Jason. We’ve been writing this as if it’s the end, but it might not be. But I really don’t know.”

“The cool thing about this is when we started, we plotted out everybody’s beginning, middle and end,” he added. “I would say that this story is going to be over next year, regardless — even if the show finds another story to tell and goes on.”

Ted Lasso Season 3 does not yet have a premiere date, and could possibly miss the premiere deadline for the 2023 Emmy Awards.