Why did Ted Lasso season 4 go to Kansas City? Jason Sudeikis explains
Jason Sudeikis has explained why Ted Lasso Season 4 headed to his hometown, Kansas City — and his castmates fell for the place.
Right, if you've been keeping up with Ted Lasso, you'll know the show is never short on heart – but Season 4 has gone purely sentimental with a detour to Kansas City. And this is no random location scout. It's the actual hometown of everyone's favourite moustachioed coach, Jason Sudeikis, who's clearly chuffed to show off his local haunts.
In an interview with PEOPLE, Sudeikis said, "And when we do those events, we invite a lot of folks from out of town to participate in them. So, I’ve had the luxury of getting to re-learn and re-love, if that’s a phrase, my hometown over and over again through other people’s eyes."
Seeing Kansas City Through Fresh Eyes
Sudeikis doesn't just breeze through Kansas City for the cameras – he's actually back home a few times each year, usually tied to local charity work. He's keen on dragging outsiders along for the ride so he can get a bit of their fresh perspective on his old stomping ground. The “re-learn and re-love” bit is pure Sudeikis: slightly soppy but you know he means it.
He was especially “thrilled” that the Ted Lasso team had a solid reason to bring the whole circus over to Kansas City for Season 4. For some cast members (the likes of Juno Temple and Jeremy Swift), it was their inaugural trip to the Midwest – and apparently, by the time the ten-day shoot had wrapped, they were thoroughly converted. According to Sudeikis, Kansas is a "really neat place" (all right, he may have undersold it a tad) and the hospitality apparently lives up to the region's stereotype.
Kansas City’s Moment in the Lasso Spotlight
Sudeikis points to Kansas City’s knack for proper hospitality, referencing the time the place hosted World Cup festivities and left international visitors raving about the welcome. For the show's fourth season, they didn't muck about with token shots or quick backgrounds. The first episode makes it utterly obvious: Ted actually treats British mates Rebecca, Keeley, and Higgins to a pilgrimage to the local institution that is Gates Bar-B-Q. Cue jokes about barbecue sauce and Brits grappling with Midwestern cuisine—business as usual for Ted Lasso, just with more smoke and meat.
Ted Lasso Season 4’s first episode landed on 5 August, and new episodes are dropping weekly on Apple TV.