Jason Sudeikis is gearing up for season 4 of his iconic Apple TV+ show, Ted Lasso, which will film largely in the Midwest this time instead of the U.K., and a source exclusively tells Life & Style he’s settling into a position of power on set and calling the shots like never before after inking an incredibly lucrative deal before agreeing to return.
“Two years ago, Jason was telling everybody in his world that he was done with Ted Lasso, that he wanted to focus on being a dad and making movies, and that he got to end the story completely on his terms,” says a high-level production insider.
The source explains that, “at the time,” Jason’s talk about wanting to put the show to bed “was all true.” Though, “Jason also saw that even six months after Lasso ended its run, it was still Apple’s most popular show and people were asking him about the character constantly.”
The season 3 finale aired in May 2023, drawing a close to the much-loved feel-good series, despite fan outcry for the show to go on, and they weren’t alone. In August 2024, cocreator Bill Lawrence told The Hollywood Reporter he was in the same exact spot as everyone else — waiting on the edge of his seat for word from Jason, 49, on whether or not it would pick back up for a new season.
“As fans, we’d all kill if it was going again,” the Scrubs writer, 56, said, “but everybody would say the same thing, which is: whatever Jason feels like doing and whatever his decision is, we’re all down with it.”
With season 4 now confirmed from Jason himself, the source explains, “It took him a while, but he finally came around to the idea of making more, and then it took another full year for him, his fellow cast members and the other show creators to make new deals to return.”
The We’re The Millers star wasn’t motivated by sentimentality. The source says his season 4 salary blows not just his previous take-home away, but pretty much every other television actor’s pay, too.
“Jason is going to be TV’s highest paid actor when this show finally comes back on the air, and he should be taking home around $3 million per episode.”
While the huge payday is just reward in the insider’s eyes for Jason’s hard work and the massive risk he took with such a unique tone for a TV show, he argues, “This project was never about money for Jason, it was about proving himself as a writer and a star and about getting across this message of optimism and hope that has always been the center of the character.”
“What’s going to be different about the upcoming season is how it’s getting even more of a truly personal project for Jason, especially how they’ll be filming a lot in the Midwest, where Jason grew up and where he found the inspiration for the Ted Lasso character in the first place.”
“Yes, after a very long process, Jason is coming back to write and play the character that made him a household name, but he’s doing it entirely on his terms and he’s getting paid more than he ever has to do so. Now let’s see if he can really recapture the magic that made Ted Lasso a phenomenon to begin with!”
