Jason Sudeikis’ eye-watering Ted Lasso salary revealed as Season 4 buzz builds
Ahead of Season 4, a trade report details Jason Sudeikis’ Ted Lasso Season 3 haul — and hints there was a way he could have made it bigger.
Big news for Ted Lasso fans, and honestly, anyone who likes seeing just how much Apple TV+ is willing to splash out for a hit. The not-so-secret is out: Jason Sudeikis raked in an absolutely monstrous salary for series three, and yes, that was before they twisted his arm for this new chapter.
“That wasn’t a negotiation tactic,” Sudeikis said of his decision. “The story was told. Ted went home to be with his son. I wasn’t going to have Ted uproot their life to justify the money truck. It made no sense to me.”
The Salary and the Reluctant Comeback
Word from The Hollywood Reporter is that Sudeikis banked a staggering $1 million per episode during the third series. For anyone trying to do the mental maths, that’s more per week than most footballers get in a month. Apple clearly had every intention of keeping their moustachioed star grinning on the touchline—he also reportedly had the option to top up his already enormous haul if he agreed to stick around for more seasons. Apparently, ‘significantly more’. Enough for a few more AFC Richmond biscuits, I’d imagine.
Ted Lasso Season 4 premieres on Apple TV on Wednesday, August 5, 2026.
And yet, Sudeikis spent quite a while holding out. Even with the prospect of a gold-plated contract dangled in front of him, he was sticking to his guns. As he put it, it wasn’t a tactic to drive up the price. The character’s story felt finished to him: Ted had, in effect, gone home. He didn’t want to drag the poor bloke back just to keep the dollars rolling in. Fair play, really—though obviously, the money did help soften his stance in the end.
The Soft Reboot and Cast Jitters
What finally got Sudeikis back in the tracksuit? Series four is not just a return—it's what you could generously call a soft reboot. This time, the AFC Richmond story pivots: Lasso’s moving in to manage the club’s brand-new women’s football team. Same universe, most of the familiar faces (yes, the cast are back), but the story has shifted gears.
- Hannah Waddingham, who plays Rebecca, admitted she felt “nervous about not wanting to do it a disservice, this beautiful thing.”
- Juno Temple (Keeley) kept “wondering if you’d be good enough, and if you can remember how to do it.”
Plenty of the cast were, in fact, much keener to return than Sudeikis, though all of them reportedly wrestled with a few personal worries. Waddingham didn’t want to mess up a show that’d become a cultural phenomenon. Temple openly worried about whether she even remembered how to hit the same heights as before.
Either way, the big reveal: Ted Lasso returns to Apple TV+ on Wednesday 5th August 2026, with a not-quite-new but certainly recalibrated setup—and now you know just how much it took to bring the man himself back for another coaching stint.