Lasso

In the summer of 2020, the year “Ted Lasso” debuted on Apple TV, the largest audience for a televised soccer match in the U.S. was 1.7 million. Shortly before the soccer-based sitcom returned for a fourth season last Wednesday, nearly 63 million viewers in the U.S. watched the World Cup final.

Brendan Hunt, the actor who plays Lasso’s loyal sidekick Coach Beard in the series, can’t prove the show is responsible for that growth. But since he can’t disprove it either, he’ll just go with the flow.

“I would love it if we’ve had a role at all,” he said. “If we are a pebble in that avalanche, then I’m happy.”

What the Emmy-winning series has undeniably done is bring soccer into millions of unsuspecting households that had previously avoided the sport like a plague. So while Jason Sudeikis, the star and co-creator, alongside Hunt, of “Ted Lasso,” insists the show is not about soccer, the sport sure gets a lot of screen time. And that has made the game more palatable and popular for a public that can now relate to it.

“We tricked them by putting soccer in a comedy show,” Hunt said. “The first thing you’ve got to do to get somebody to become a soccer fan is just make them care about one team, to find one team.

“In this instance we’ve made them care about this fictional team and that easily can transmute, if you’re not careful, into caring about other teams. And then hopefully the sport itself.”

After a three-year hiatus, “Lasso” returned for Season 4 last week with the series’ eponymous title character, played by Sudeikis, returning to Richmond to coach a fledgling second-division women’s team. Hunt’s understated character makes his first appearance of the season in Episode 2 Wednesday.

“He is clearly going through something,” Hunt said. “Is it just what happens to Beard when he’s away from Ted for too long or is there something important that has happened? We’ll find out before too long.”

Speaking of having gone through something, Hunt, who plays a fictional coach for a fictional team, spent the first part of his summer being a very real journalist at a very real tournament, attending 14 World Cup games in more than half a dozen stadiums — including the Spain-France semifinal in Arlington, Texas, which he watched from the press box, and the Spain-Argentina final, part of which he watched from field level.

“That was a really cool experience,” said Hunt, who did a World Cup podcast with Rebecca Lowe, the studio host of Fox’s tournament coverage.

But for Hunt, 54, the most passionate soccer fan among the writers and actors on “Ted Lasso,” the sport was an acquired taste. Half a lifetime ago, Hunt was a die-hard Chicago Bears fan working in residence with an improv group at a small, aging theater in Amsterdam when he got swept up in Dutch soccer culture.

Eventually, he said, he was contributing weekly columns to Sp!ts, a free commuter newspaper in Amsterdam, chronicling his growing infatuation with the sport. When Sudeikis, another Midwesterner, joined the comedy troupe, Hunt began proselytizing about the sport, using PlayStation games to draw in Sudeikis.

“I found a secret that I had to tell everybody,” Hunt said. “When Jason came to Amsterdam, by that point I was fully a zealot. It was like a new recipe. ‘This thing is great!’

“I’ve been doing it ever since. I just have a slightly larger platform from which to do it.”

That platform is “Ted Lasso,” based around a soft-drawling college football coach, and Beard, his quiet but intense assistant. The concept debuted in a 2013 promo for NBC’s coverage of the English Premier League, then launched as a full-blown sitcom during the angst and fear of the coronavirus pandemic seven years later.

The series, with its message of optimism, kindness and patience and its call to “be curious, not judgmental” — a sentiment Lasso mistakenly credits to Walt Whitman — proved to be the perfect tonic for those trying times. Before it paused after Season 3, it had become the most-watched original streaming series across all platforms and the first Apple TV show to cross the billion-minute mark in a single tracking week.

But in addition to all the messaging and positivity, the show also included soccer. The offside rule and promotion and relegation are the butts of repeated jokes and there are discussions of tactics, positions, formations and other game-related details that would have previously frustrated viewers.

“Lasso,” however, proved U.S. soccer IQ was higher than expected; the sport may not have become fully mainstream, but it was no longer a foreign concept.

“There’s just a wider sense of like, ‘yeah, we’re fine. Soccer’s fine,’” Hunt said of the U.S. public. “We don’t need to explain it to people or impress it upon people. The World Cup has sort of finally cemented that.

“It feels like less and less of a capital S struggle right now.”

Brendan Hunt, left, and Jason Sudeikis in “Ted Lasso.”

(Apple TV)

For Hunt, who has been a season-ticket holder for LAFC and Angel City, getting to be a credentialed World Cup journalist — and a participant in the halftime show at the final — were once such far-fetched dreams that they never even made his bucket list. Getting paid to write scripts for a project he’s passionate about, then act out those scripts as a make-believe coach, was once only slightly less unbelievable.

Yet Hunt has done it all — and after a three-year break he’s back doing it again.

“It’s definitely fun,” he said. “For one thing it makes me a little more useful in the writers’ room than I would be on ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’ And it also means that a world that I already really enjoy has now opened its arms to us.

“The world of football, to have responded so well to this show, has been truly a touching part of this experience.”

And no one can’t prove the show hasn’t played at least a small role in making the U.S. a soccer country at last.

After three years, “Ted Lasso” has returned to the pitch. Did it need to? The third season finale, which seemed until now to be a series finale, brought most every character’s arc to a satisfying, credible conclusion — the less satisfying ones were just as credible — while pointing to a future you were free to imagine, or think nothing more about. Or you could write fan fiction. (People do.) I loved the show, but its absence has not been a painful one.

Anyway, it’s back, beginning Wednesday on Apple TV, and I am glad enough. Strictly speaking, it’s a new adventure, as one Indiana Jones movie might follow another, with Jason Sudeikis’ title character returning to Richmond to manage a new women’s soccer team, a project raised way back at the end of Season 3, and which now has “been three years in the making.”

Where are we now? Star player Jamie Tartt has departed the show all the way to Barcelona; kit man turned coach turned competition turned kit man Nate Shelley is nowhere to be seen. But as much may be said of the whole of AFC Richmond, apart from Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein), who took over as manager when Ted returned to Kansas City, Mo., to spend more time with son Henry (Grant Feely, replacing Gus Turner), and Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt), who has turned into an uncommunicative mass of hair. This is not at all that team’s story, though certain fans within (and perhaps without) the world of the series might prefer that it was.

Four episodes out of 10 have been made available for review. The first is something of a hurdle, bogged down in contrivances to get Ted back to Richmond from Kansas City, where he has been “trying to help [Henry] become the best version of himself.” The question is whether Ted, working part time as the assistant manager of a supermarket, is living the best version of himself. The answer, as everyone but Ted recognizes, is no. Naturally, he spreads sunshine all over the place, being who he is, but this is not the future you would have written for him, nor one suggested by the third season finale, where we saw him coaching Henry’s soccer team. But it gives him a place to come back from.

Hannah Waddingham, left, and Juno Temple in “Ted Lasso.”

And so club owner Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham), director of operations Leslie Higgins (Jeremy Swift) and queen of all marketing Keeley Jones (Juno Temple) show up on Ted’s doorstep to propose that he manage the Lady Greyhounds, “to lay the foundations of the Richmond culture that you created with our men.” (He has not been checking his messages, apparently, necessitating this in-person, three-person visit.)

In addition to dragging the pieces into place, much of the opening episode seems meant to satisfy an impulse to show off Kansas City — Sudeikis grew up in that area. There are multiple excursions for barbecue, each resulting in stained clothes for Rebecca. There’s a trip to CPKC Stadium, “the first privately funded stadium in the world solely for pro women’s soccer,” to see the Kansas City Current play.

Finding the American Jazz Museum closed, Higgins (earlier established as a double bassist) wanders across 18th Street to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, where a friendly docent (Milan Carter) schools him on its history, including a long tribute to pitcher Satchel Paige, with oddly interpolated documentary footage. (Higgins ventures that their experience is “quite similar to how women in England weren’t allowed to play football for years,” an idea his Black host shoots down with a well-aimed, “Mmmmm.”)

“They didn’t do it for fame or fortune. They did it ‘cause to not play would have been unacceptable,” he’s told. Or, as former AFC Richmond striker Dani Rojas said of soccer: “Football is life.”

Things improve in the more natural second episode (and improve from there), which takes us finally back to Richmond. Ted’s only real objection to leaving Kansas City is almost too easily overcome by suggesting that Henry and his mother, Michelle (Andrea Anders), the ex- but not estranged wife, come with him. Having won over all doubters over the first three seasons, Ted needs someone new to charm, and that will be coach Alice Chilton (Tanya Reynolds), who had hoped for the manager’s job. She’s a little rain cloud of a person, dour and humorless, though perhaps rightly offended by being passed over. Reynolds, who’ll certainly emerge as the season’s star, makes a big impression by holding things in, acting almost entirely with her eyes, so that when she cracks a smile in spite of herself, it registers as huge.

Jude Mack as player Boots in “Ted Lasso.”

Among the players, our attention is directed to Boots (Jude Mack), whom we notice because of her short-cropped hair, and because she’s the goalkeeper, and has a quirk — though she’s a powerhouse, “none of the big clubs will touch her because she won’t wear gloves.” (She prefers to keep things tactile. “What’s the point of life if you’re not feeling it?” Boots asks in another of the show’s sampler sentiments.) Lizzie (Faye Marsay) stands out because she arrives to an open call with a cute child in tow and is older and more mature than the others, Gemma (Abbie Hern), by virtue of having unresolved old business with Alice, and having, like Ted, to be talked onto the team.

The underdog aspect of it all will be emphasized, of course — a new team, in a money-losing second division, with second-rate locker room accommodations, seasoned with sexism that may or may not reflect actual British attitudes toward women’s soccer. Feminist themes, always present vis-a-vis Rebecca and Keeley, not unreasonably take the foreground, with Rebecca overcorrecting the thought that she might not be one — a funny conversation with Harriet Walter as her mother comes out of this — and Tracey Ullman arriving in Episode 4 to be badass.

By the end of that episode, there will have been enough sweet, celebratory moments to have rewarded your investment. (I gauge this scientifically by how often I choke up.) Where the story is going in any substantial way, other than, you know, win games, maybe get Roy and Keeley back together, do something interesting with Henry and/or Michelle, it’s too soon to tell. I assume it’s going somewhere, but we’ll find that out together.

JUNO Temple has secretly married her long-time boyfriend Michal Szymanski.

The American actress made the confession as she promoted the upcoming series of Ted Lasso on a TFI Unplugged Special, out today.

Juno, who plays Keeley Jones in the hit Apple TV series, opened up about meeting Michael during the second series of filming when he was driving for Hannah Waddingham.

Speaking to TFI Unplugged and Virgin Radio UK Breakfast Show host Chris Evans, Juno said: “I got married, we met on season two of Ted Lasso.”

Hannah, 52, who plays Rebecca Welton in the series, also revealed she played a part in bringing the pair together.

Hannah said: “She said, ‘Can I ask him on a date?’ I said, ‘Yes you can.’ He was my driver.”

wad a girl

Hannah Waddingham stuns in a black PVC dress with Ted Lasso co-star Juno Temple

bold moves

Little Birds’ Juno Temple was ‘f***ing liberating’ during erotic film scenes

Juno, 37, then explained how the pair found ways to spend time together behind the scenes without any of their castmates realising.

She said: “He was driving Hannah and they had a secret code where I could go and meet them and accidentally, Hannah’s appointment would run over.”

The couple went public with their relationship in 2022 when they walked the red carpet together at the UK premiere of Top Gun: Maverick on May 19.

Since then, Juno has kept her lips sealed about their relationship, but they have made plenty of public appearances.

Michal and Juno have attended a string of high-profile events, including the Los Angeles premiere of Year 5 in November 2023, the Critics Choice Awards in 2024 and the London premiere of Venom: The Last Dance at the BFI IMAX Waterloo.

The loved-up pair have now taken their relationship to the next level — as well as secretly tying the knot, Juno revealed they have also bought a home together.

According to Hannah, they could not be better suited – she had jokingly warned Michal early on: “Look after my girl or I will punch you square in the face.”

She then added: “They are the greatest oxygen to each other in the universe.”

The full episode of TFI Unplugged is available to watch now.

Anthony Head, the British television actor who had roles in “Ted Lasso,” “Merlin” and most notably as father figure Rupert Giles in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” has died, his family announced Friday.

Head’s daughters Emily and Daisy Head confirmed his death to the Associated Press and said he died of complications from pneumonia. He was 72.

“Our grief is far greater than the hole he has left behind, but we know his legacy will live on, in the shows he was a part of, and in the audiences that love them,” Head’s daughters said in a statement to AP. “How lucky we are to know we are able to watch him doing what he loved, even when he is no longer with us.”

Head, a veteran of several BBC series including “Doctor Who,” became most familiar to American audiences in the late 1990s, playing Rupert Giles — a high-school-librarian-turned-magic-shop-owner and mentor to Sarah Michelle Gellar‘s titular character in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” He starred in a majority of episodes — 121 installments, according to IMDb — during the series’ run from 1997 to 2003. Head’s death follows those of fellow “Buffy” cast members Michelle Trachtenberg in February 2025 and Nicholas Brendon in March.

In addition to being Buffy’s advisor, Giles would go on to become a surrogate father figure to the slayer and her crew. In “Buffy” terms, Giles was a Watcher, a member of a council devoted to tracking and studying supernatural entities to keep evil forces at bay. Despite his stuffy demeanor and penchant for tweed, Giles was compassionate and had a rebellious streak, particularly in his youth. He would defy the rules set out for him by his job in order to save Buffy when he could.

Head’s portrayal of Giles left enough of an impression on audiences and series creator Joss Whedon that there was talk in 2001 of a Giles-centric spinoff. The series was planned to air on the BBC and was set to center on Giles and his sleuthing endeavors away from the main “Buffy” band. In the following years the potential miniseries evolved in to a one-off film, but Head finally confirmed in 2008 that the spinoff would not be moving forward. Whedon was “busy with another project, I’m tied up too, so at the moment I’d just say that it’s still out there,” Head told the BBC at the time.

After “Buff the Vampire Slayer” aired its final episode in 2003, Head continued his television work in British series including sketch series “Little Britain,” “The Invisibles” and “Free Agents.” His next prominent role would be in the fantasy series “Merlin” as Uther Pendragon, the King of Camelot and the father of would-be-king Arthur and sorceress Morgana Pendragon. The fantasy series premiered in 2008 and concluded in 2012.

In the following years he appeared in series “You, Me & Them,” “Dominion” and “Guilt,” among others. Head in recent years appeared in hit series “Bridgerton” and “Ted Lasso.” In the latter, co-created by Jason Sudeikis, Brendan Hunt and Joe Kelly, Head portrayed another Rupert — this time Rupert Mannion, a womanizing billionaire and ex-husband of soccer team owner Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham).

Head, born Feb. 20, 1954, in London, was the son to documentary filmmaker Seafield Head and actor Helen Shingler. His older brother, Murray, is also an actor and singer.

Before Head became known for “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” the actor gained a reputation among British audiences in the 1980s when he starred in a series of romantic ads for Nescafe Gold Blend instant coffee. The ads were later reshot for a U.S. audience for Taster’s Choice.

Head began his acting career in musical theater and has guest starred in series including “NYPD Blue” and “Highlander.” He appeared in a number of films, including in the Oscar-winning “The Iron Lady,” starring Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher.

Head is preceded in death by his partner, animal welfare activist Sarah Fisher. She died in 2025 at age 61.

Times staff writer Tracy Brown and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Mexican actor Cristo Fernández, 35, has moved from playing professional football in fictional TV to real life after signing with an American football club.

Fernández – who plays Dani Rojas in the popular TV series Ted Lasso – has signed with USL Championship side El Paso Locomotive FC, the second-highest league in the US.

He tells the BBC that it is a “dream come true” to play professional football and that his popular Ted Lasso catchphrase “football is life” was his own invention.

Ted Lasso star Cristo Fernández has taken his role as a footballer on the small screen into real life after signing a contract with the US second-tier side El Paso Locomotive FC.

Ted Lasso star Cristo Fernández has taken his role as a footballer from fiction to reality after signing a professional contract with the US second-tier side El Paso Locomotive FC.

Announcing the news the club said: “The rumors were true. Welcome to El Paso, Cristo Fernández. El Paso Locomotive FC announced today that it has signed forward Cristo Fernández.”

Cristo is best known by Ted Lasso fans as Dani Rojas, a beloved member of the Richmond team in the hit Apple TV+ show about a British team with a coach with an American football background.

However, many TV fans were unaware that outside of his acting career, the 35 year old has been taking part in football training, training with the Major League Soccer side Chicago Fire’s reserves this year, he also appeared in pre-season matches for the Locomotive before signing with the football club.

The actor played youth football in Mexico while growing up but was forced to quit after a knee injury. After gaining fame in the football based TV show, he is now set to return, saying in a statement that football has been a huge part of his life.

“Football has always been a huge part of my life and identity, and no matter where life has taken me, the dream of competing professionally never truly left my heart,” said Fernandez, who also trialled with the second team of Major League Soccer side Chicago Fire earlier this year.

“I’m incredibly grateful to El Paso Locomotive FC – the club, coaches, staff, and especially my team-mates – for opening the doors and giving me the opportunity to compete from day one.

“This journey back to professional soccer is about believing in yourself, taking risks, and continuing to chase your dreams no matter how unexpected the path may be.

“Maybe I’m just a crazy man with crazy dreams… so being here with the ‘Locos’ actually makes perfect sense.”

El Paso is a newer club, founded in 2018. The group is currently fourth in Group B of the United Soccer League Championship standings. “Cristo is a great addition to our roster, adding another attacking threat to our forward line,” the club’s head coach, Junior Gonzalez, said.

“His passion for the game and leadership qualities for our locker room allow us to continue growing the positive culture we strive for as a club.”

While Cristo is best known for his appearance in Ted Lasso, he has also had several appearances in films and TV shows including; Spider-Man: No Way Home and Sonic The Hedgehog 3. He has also featured in the State Farm commercial “Bundle is Life” alongside Patrick Mahomes.