Emmys: ‘Ted Lasso’ Creator Thanks Fans As Show Takes Best Comedy Series

Ted Lasso, the show about an underdog football coach, proved to be a champion at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards, giving Apple TV+ its first best comedy series win.

The series, created by Jason Sudeikis, Brendan Hunt, Joe Kelly and Bill Lawrence, stars Sudeikis as an American football coach who heads to the U.K. to manage a London football team. Lawrence, flanked by his cast, thanked the audience who made the good-natured show a pandemic-era hit.

“The biggest thank-you from this group is to the people who watch,” said Lawrence. “We all know how lucky we are to do this for a living and we appreciate you.”

The win capped a big night for Ted Lasso, which saw Sudeikis take home the best comedy actor award. Its seven wins included Hannah Waddingham for best supporting comedy actress and Brett Goldstein for best supporting comedy actor.

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Ted Lasso was a breakout hit and received 20 Emmy nominations in total. Sudeikis recently closed a deal for season three that will pay him in the vicinity of $1 million per episode. Other castmembers, as well as producers and writers, also scored sizable pay increases on the Warner Bros. Television-produced show.

Despite the love for season one, Ted Lasso’s recent second season received backlash in some corners of social media — from Daily Show writer and producer Daniel Radosh, who in a Twitter thread wrote it might be “the steepest decline from S1 to S2 in TV history.”

The series beat out Black-ish, Cobra Kai, Pen15, Emily in Paris, Hacks, The Flight Attendant and The Kominsky Method at the 2021 Emmys.

The 2021 Primetime Emmy Awards took place on Sunday, returning to an in-person show after last year’s largely virtual, audience-free celebration. Cedric the Entertainer hosted the Television Academy honors, which aired on CBS from the outdoor L.A. Live event deck in downtown Los Angeles.