Jason Sudeikis is defending “Ted Lasso” from haters.
The 49-year-old star and co-creator of the Apple TV+ series commented on criticisms of the show’s third season at a panel held by the actor’s union SAG-AFTRA earlier this year. Sudeikis’ remarks are included in a new book about the beloved show, “Believe: The Untold Story Behind Ted Lasso, the Show That Kicked Its Way Into Our Hearts,” released Tuesday.
In the book, Egner reports that “a small but vocal group of dissenters” criticized “how the [show’s] core cast had been scattered into different storylines” during its third season, complaining that the narrative had become “too diffuse and unfocused” — particularly with regard to Keeley and Nate’s arcs.
As Egner points out, Sudeikis addressed such criticisms at the SAG Q&A, saying that some viewers critical of the show lack “imaginations.”
“Much like live theater, the show, especially Season 3, was asking the audience to be an active participant,” the star remarked, as noted by TVLine. “Some people want to do that, some people don’t. Some people want to judge—they don’t want to be curious.”
“Ted Lasso” fans will recognize Sudeikis’ allusion to Coach Lasso’s motto: “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 added. “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.”
Referring to how the show’s characters ended the season, the Emmy winner said, “Everybody’s in better shape than when they started. 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.”
The third season of “Ted Lasso” was thought to be its last, though lately, rumors have spread that a fourth season is on the horizon.
According to Deadline, Warner Bros. Television — which produced the hit series — picked up the options on original cast members Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein, and Jeremy Swift.
In August, “Ted Lasso” co-creator and executive producer Bill Lawrence exclusively told The Post that the fate of a possible season four rested in Sudeikis’ hands.
“You can ask anybody that wrote on the show, or acted on the show, or produced the show, and we will all say the same thing, which is, that’s up to Jason Sudeikis,” Lawrence said while promoting his latest Apple TV+ show “Bad Monkey.”
“Because, by the way, he’s not just Ted Lasso himself and the writer co-creator — but he’s the one that would have to uproot his entire life and family, you know?”
Filmed in the UK, “Ted Lasso” required Sudeikis, who is based in the US and shares two kids — son Otis, 10, and daughter Daisy, 8 — with his ex-fiancée, American actress Olivia Wilde, 40, to relocate across the Atlantic to work on the show.
