'We tricked them.' Why 'Ted Lasso' probably deserves some credit for U.S. soccer boom

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Set us as preferred 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.Emmy-winning ‘Ted Lasso’ returns for a fourth season, with Jason Sudeikis coaching a women’s team.

Stars Hannah Waddingham and Juno Temple also return.“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 ch...