Ted Lasso Season 4 premieres on Apple TV, pivoting to women's soccer with Kansas City Current cameo

A new direction for Ted Lasso

Season 4 of Ted Lasso premiered on Apple TV on August 5, 2026, shifting the 13-time Emmy-winning comedy from AFC Richmond's men's team to a newly launched women's side, the Lady Greyhounds, chasing promotion from England's second division. The season opener, titled "Home," finds Ted (Jason Sudeikis) working as a grocery store cashier in his hometown of Kansas City, having left football behind to be a present father to his son Henry (Grant Feely). Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham), Keeley Jones (Juno Temple), and Leslie Higgins (Jeremy Swift) travel from London to recruit him, using a visit to a Kansas City Current match as cover for their real purpose. After an episode of hesitation, Ted agrees to return to England.

Inspiration and production

Co-creator Brendan Hunt, who also plays Coach Beard, told Variety the idea took hold after England's women's national team, the Lionesses, won the UEFA Women's Championship in 2022 while Season 3 was in production. The team beat Germany in added time at Wembley, and Hunt said the nationwide shift in attitude toward women's football stuck with the creative team. Sudeikis, already a WNBA fan with New York Liberty season tickets, gradually warmed to the idea over months of intermittent text messages from Hunt. Jack Burditt assumed showrunning duties for the new season, amid what Vulture described as a messy production history.

Kansas City Current connection

The premiere episode was filmed at CPKC Stadium, home of the NWSL's Kansas City Current and the first stadium built specifically for a professional women's soccer club. Current co-owner Angie Long told ESPN the cameo felt like an "endorsement" for women's soccer.

It is a little bit proof of concept. Everything that we've built, even a show like Ted Lasso is seeing it. So, I think it's endorsement.

Long also noted the timing, with a World Cup year approaching and the Women's World Cup scheduled for the United States in 2031. Many of the Current fans depicted in the episode were played by actual club staff.

Cast changes and departures

Several fan-favorite actors from the first three seasons do not appear in Season 4 due to the shift to a women's team. These include Toheeb Jimoh (Sam Obisanya), Cristo Fernández (Dani Rojas), Phil Dunster (Jamie Tartt), Kola Bokinni (Isaac McAdoo), Billy Harris (Collin Hughes), and Nick Mohammed (Nathan Shelley). The premiere pays tribute to them through a scene in which Ted looks at AFC Richmond memorabilia on his wall, including a newspaper clipping about Jamie Tartt's departure written by fictional journalist Trent Crimm (James Lance). Brendan Hunt and Brett Goldstein, who plays Roy Kent, are expected to return in later episodes.

Critical reception and cultural footprint

Reviews were mixed. The Financial Times called the season "not a glorious return to form," noting that an entire episode devoted to Ted saying no feels like filler and that the show struggles to untangle its own cartoonish sexism subplot. Vulture described the series as being "in purgatory," arguing that placing Ted behind a checkout counter strains credulity for a coach who transformed a middling club into a Premier League contender. Meanwhile, the real London suburb of Richmond-upon-Thames has become a tourist destination, with fans visiting what locals call "Ted Lasso corner" to photograph the pub, red phone booths, and bench featured in the show.

New episodes of Season 4 are released on Wednesdays on Apple TV.