Ted Lasso Season 4 premieres August 5 on Apple TV+: cast, episodes, and the women's team premise

Ted Lasso Season 4 premieres globally on Apple TV+ on August 5, 2026, Apple confirmed today.¹ Jason Sudeikis returns as the American football coach turned English Premier League manager — except this time, the team he's coaching is new.³ AFC Richmond, after winning the Premier League and stepping away from the top flight, has launched a women's team, and Ted is back to lead them.² Here is everything we know heading into the premiere.

When does Ted Lasso Season 4 premiere?

Ted Lasso Season 4 premieres globally on Apple TV+ on Tuesday, August 5, 2026 with its first three episodes dropping at launch.¹³ Subsequent episodes release weekly on Tuesdays. Apple has not published a per-episode drop schedule beyond the initial three, but the typical Apple TV+ cadence for a 10-12 episode season is one new episode per week through October or November 2026.

What is the premise of Season 4?

Season 3 ended with AFC Richmond winning the Premier League and Ted returning to the United States to be with his son. Season 4 picks up some time later: Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) has built out the AFC Richmond women's team, and Ted is coaxed back to England to manage it.² The setup preserves the show's signature fish-out-of-water premise (Ted still does not really understand football) while shifting the stakes: a women's team is a different competitive and commercial environment, and the show has hinted that Ted's coaching philosophy — belief, kindness, accountability — is being tested by a different kind of pressure than the Premier League offered.³

This is the most structurally different Ted Lasso season since the first. Seasons 1-3 followed a single arc (promotion, Premier League survival, title challenge); Season 4 is more of a fresh start with familiar characters in a new context.

Who is returning from the original cast?

The full core cast is back for Season 4.¹⁵ Confirmed returning:

• Jason Sudeikis as Ted Lasso
• Hannah Waddingham as Rebecca Welton
• Brett Goldstein as Roy Kent (now coaching the men's team)
• Juno Temple as Keeley Jones
• Phil Dunster as Jamie Tartt
• Nick Mohammed as Nathan Shelley
• Brendan Hunt as Coach Beard
• Jeremy Swift as Higgins
• Sarah Niles as Dr. Sharon Fieldstone

A handful of Season 3 additions are also expected to return in some capacity, including the team's new ownership group. Apple has not published a per-episode cast list yet, so the first three episodes dropping today will be the first confirmation of who shows up when.

Who is joining the cast for Season 4?

The most prominent new addition is Brandi Carlile in a recurring role as a former USWNT player turned commentator.⁵ Carlile, the Grammy-winning musician and longtime soccer fan, brings genuine football credibility to the new women's-team setup. Several other cast additions have been reported across the production cycle, including new players on the AFC Richmond women's roster and at least one new coach, but Apple has kept the full new-cast list under wraps to avoid premiere-day spoilers.

How many episodes is Season 4, and what is the release schedule?

Apple TV+ has confirmed a 12-episode order for Season 4.² The release cadence:

• August 5, 2026 — Episodes 1, 2, 3 drop together (premiere event)
• August 12, 2026 — Episode 4
• August 19, 2026 — Episode 5
• Subsequent Tuesdays through late October 2026 — Episodes 6-12

This is a slight deviation from Seasons 2 and 3, which dropped one episode per week from the start. The three-episode premiere is meant to give the new cast and premise time to settle in before weekly cadence begins.

Where can I watch Ted Lasso Season 4?

Ted Lasso Season 4 is exclusive to Apple TV+ worldwide. Apple TV+ is a separate subscription from Apple One, though Apple One bundles it with Apple Music, Apple Arcade, and iCloud+ at a lower effective monthly price. The service is available on:

• iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV (4K and HD) via the Apple TV app
• Select Samsung, LG, Sony, and Vizio smart TVs via the Apple TV app
• PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One
• Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Google TV streamers (Chromecast with Google TV, Nvidia Shield)
• Web at tv.apple.com on Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari

Apple TV+ costs $9.99/month standalone in the US. The Apple One Premier bundle (Apple TV+, Apple Music, Apple Arcade, iCloud+ 2TB, and Fitness+) is $37.95/month. For new subscribers, Apple usually runs a 7-day free trial and periodically offers 3-month free trials tied to device purchases.

What does this mean for Apple TV+?

Ted Lasso has been Apple TV+'s flagship comedy since 2020 and the most-awarded show in the service's history. Renewing it for a fourth season — particularly one with a structurally different premise — is a signal that Apple sees the show as a long-term brand anchor rather than a one-off prestige play.² A fourth season also creates a clean handoff: even if Ted Lasso itself winds down after S4, the AFC Richmond universe (now including the women's team) gives Apple the option for spinoffs, similar to how Yellowstone seeded 1883 and 1923.

For Apple's services business, this matters: Apple TV+ subscriber growth has been driven disproportionately by a small number of hit originals (Ted Lasso, Severance, Silo, Shrinking, Slow Horses). Keeping the flagship comedy alive for one more season is a defensive subscriber-retention move more than a growth play.

What to watch in the first three episodes

Three things worth paying attention to when the premiere drops tonight:

1. How Ted's voiceover narration returns. S3 ended with a Ted voice-over that signaled his departure; if S4 opens with a Rebecca voice-over or a cold open from a new character's perspective, that's a structural choice the show is signaling.
2. The women's team chemistry. The new cast is the variable. If the new players land quickly in the first three episodes, the season has room to breathe; if the writers are still introducing them in episode 3, expect pacing problems later.
3. Roy Kent's role. Goldstein is the most acclaimed performer in the cast, and Roy's arc from hot-headed striker to coach is a useful mirror for Ted's new role. Watch how the writers use him.

Reviews for the first three episodes drop Tuesday evening; we'll update this page with the critical response as it lands.