Spoiler alert for Ted Lasso season two
The Premier League has secured a lucrative licensing deal with the hit comedy TV show Ted Lasso.
The agreement, understood to be worth as much as £500,000, allows the award-winning show’s producers to use archive footage, the Premier League’s logos, club kits and even the league trophy, as reported in David Ornstein’s column.
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The show is based on a simple premise: a recently divorced club owner hires an incompetent coach to sabotage the team, the fictional AFC Richmond, thereby gaining revenge against her cheating ex-husband, who loves the club.
Lasso, an American football coach with no understanding of the global game whatsoever, is the unwitting agent of her revenge but his decency and relentless optimism gradually win over the dressing room and wider public.
Ted Lasso is Apple TV+’s top-rated show in all of its main international markets.
At last month’s Emmy Awards, it was named outstanding comedy series, with Jason Sudeikis, who plays Lasso, and co-stars Hannah Waddingham and Brett Goldstein earning acting awards.
Sudeikis has also won a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild gong.
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Why have the Premier League struck this deal?
A deal of this kind brings in a different audience to the Premier League and breaks new ground between a sports competition and a TV show.
The Athletic understands that previously sceptical Premier League executives have grown to love the show’s folksy charm.
Is there anything else I need to know?
Absolutely.
In his weekly column, Ornstein has all the detail on Nuno Espirito Santo’s contract, Granit Xhaka’s recovery, how Phil Foden and Mohamed Salah will split their man of the match awards, plus much more.
Go Deeper below.
(Photo: SAGAwards2021 via Getty Images)
