Three years after what looked like a series finale, Ted Lasso returns today with a premise built around scarcity rather than underdog charm alone. Season 4 follows Ted back to AFC Richmond, where he’s coaching the club’s newly formed second-division women’s team, the Lady Greyhounds, who work with limited resources and a cramped training ground while facing pushback from Richmond fans who worry the new team will drain funding from the men’s side. It’s a sharper premise than a straightforward continuation would have been, and it gives the show a genuine reason to exist beyond nostalgia.

The season runs for 10 episodes, with the premiere out now and new instalments landing every Wednesday through October 7. Apple TV+ is releasing the episode simultaneously worldwide, so viewers outside the US should be able to stream it at the corresponding local time today.

The comeback also got an unusual head start weeks before its premiere, with Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt appearing in character as Ted and Coach Beard during the 2026 FIFA World Cup Final halftime show.

The Lady Greyhounds, and the money problem built into the plot

Ted, Rebecca and Roy are all returning in a managerial capacity for the Lady Greyhounds, a team that starts with the odds stacked even further against it than Richmond’s men ever faced. The show is leaning directly into the real-world funding and visibility gap in women’s football rather than glossing over it, with the new team reportedly working with less money, worse facilities and far less media coverage than their male counterparts. That gives the writers a built-in conflict for the season that doesn’t rely on relegation drama or a returning villain; the obstacle this time is structural rather than personal.

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New coaches, a recast kid, and one notable absence

The most significant new addition is Alice Chilton, played by Tanya Reynolds, who joins the Lady Greyhounds staff as a coach alongside Ted and Coach Beard. Reynolds has described Alice as someone working hard to present as tough and focused to the point of losing her softness, with her arc built around slowly letting that guard down over the season.

The rest of the new cast, including Jude Mack, Faye Marsay, Rex Hayes, Aisling Sharkey, Abbie Hern and Grant Feely, fills out the women’s team and its surrounding cast, though most of their character details were kept under wraps ahead of the premiere.

One recast stands out: Grant Feely now plays Ted’s son Henry, taking over from Gus Turner in a role that’s expected to carry more weight this season. On the flip side, Phil Dunster, who played Jamie Tartt, is not returning as a series regular this time due to a scheduling conflict.

Why a show that had already ended is worth watching again

The core problem with a fourth season was always narrative: season three had effectively wrapped up Ted’s arc at Richmond, and the show needed a real reason to pull him back in. The Lady Greyhounds storyline solves that cleanly, since it hands Ted a genuinely new challenge instead of rehashing the men’s team’s redemption story.

Ted Lasso premiered in August 2020 and became one of the defining pandemic-era comfort watches, going on to win 13 Emmy Awards across its run, so there was always going to be pressure on a revival to justify itself rather than trade on goodwill alone. Hannah Waddingham has said the show still had more story left to tell, and that its heartfelt, uplifting spirit carries through into this new chapter. Apple has framed the season around the idea of learning to leap before you look, which tracks with a show that’s choosing a harder, less certain premise over an easy victory lap.

Whether that’s enough to recapture what made the original run resonate is something only the next nine Wednesdays will answer.