Photo: Publicity / Apple TV + / Modern Popcorn
“Ted Lasso” made television history on Tuesday (13/7), receiving 20 nominations for the 2021 Emmy Award. That number is a record for a new series.
20 nominations for comedy beat Apple TV + the record set 11 years ago, which belonged to the inaugural season of “Glee” on Fox, with 19 nominations.
Co-written and co-written by actor Jason Sudeikis and screenwriter Bill Lawrence (creator of “Scrubs” and “Cougar Town”), “Ted Lasso” is competing for top prizes in its category, including Best Comedy Series, Actor (Sudeikis), Actress assistant (Hannah Waddingham and Juno Temple), supporting actor (Brett Goldstein, Brendan Hunt, Nick Muhammad, Jeremy Swift), as well as competing for three awards for Best Directing and two for Best Screenplay with various episodes.
The Emmy approval comes after the series was honored in the Winter Extended Pandemic Awards season (December-April in the US), when it won three Critics’ Choice Awards, two WGA Awards (Screenwriters Association Award) and a SAG Award (from the Actors Association) for Sudeikis.
Although Apple, like other broadcasters, does not release viewing data, “Ted Lasso” has been ranked the platform’s most-watched program in the US, UK, Australia, Germany, Mexico, France and Canada, among others. Other regions, with a large majority of viewers after all available episodes.
The show revolves around the title character, a football coach who is hired to work for an English football club despite having no experience in the sport that US residents call football.
What’s most intriguing about “Ted Lasso” is that the character and all of his premise actually existed before it became a series, having been designed in 2013 for commercials on NBC Sports pay. The Apple production took the humor from commercials starring Sudeikis and spanned entire episodes and seasons.
According to Apple, the attraction was responsible for attracting 25% of new subscribers to the service after its launch on August 14 last year.
The series returns on July 23 and, thanks to the dedication, has already been renewed for a third season.
