Ted Lasso Season 4, starring Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple and Brett Goldstein, is back with Season 4 after a three-year break and Rotten Tomatoes critics are cheering the Emmy-winning series’ return.

An Apple TV original series, Ted Lasso stars Sudeikis in the title role, a U.S. football coach who is out of his depth when he is hired to coach AFC Richmond in England. The always affable Ted’s optimism is impossible to dampen, though, even when the team’s new owner, Rebecca Welton (Waddingham), has set him up to fail.

At the end of Ted Lasso Season 3 — which was originally supposed to be the final season of the series — Ted hangs up his visor and returns home to Kansas City to be with his son, Henry (Gus Turner), and coach his soccer team. Ted Lasso Season 4 finds Ted working as an assistant manager at a grocery store; that is, until fate comes calling for him to return to England to coach Richmond WFC and hopefully make the women’s second division club a team thatfd fans can “believe” in.

However, taking the job also comes with the major personal challenge of being the best dad he can be to Henry (Grant Feely, who takes over the role from Turner) — showing once again that Ted Lasso is every bit as much about its characters off the field as they are on it.

“When this offer comes in, all of a sudden, of coaching the women's team, it starts to shine some light on the fact that if he's not being the best Ted he can be, then is he inherently not being the best dad he can be?” series co-creator Brendan Hunt, who also plays Coach Beard, told USA Today recently. “Does part of being a good dad mean showing your child you being the best version of yourself, and you leaning into your mission, not just trying to make time for other people in your life, no matter how beloved or legitimate those people may be?"

The review embargo for Ted Lasso Season 4 lifted on Wednesday at 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT, which was also the start time of the new season’s first episode. In early reviews on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer, Ted Lasso Season 4 has scored an 86% “fresh” critics’ score on RT based on 21 reviews, while the site’s Critics Consensus, Audience Summary and Popcornmeter score based on verified user ratings are still pending.

By contrast, Ted Lasso Season 1 earned a 92% “fresh” critics’ score on RT’s Tomatometer based on 72 reviews, while Season 2 shot up to a near-perfect 98% “fresh” critics’ score based on 125 reviews. RT’s critics’ score for Season 3, however, dropped to 81% “fresh” based on 207 reviews.

While the 81% “fresh” critics’ score for Season 3 of Ted Lasso was nothing for the show to be ashamed about, the eroding enthusiasm for the series was reflected in its awards season performance in comparison to Seasons 1 and 2.

Ted Lasso won Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Lead Actor (for Sudeikis) honors at the Primetime Emmy Awards in 2021 and 2022 — but Season 3 of the series was shut out in the same categories in 2023. To date, Ted Lasso has won 13 Emmys out of 55 nominations, including supporting acting honors for Waddingham (in 2021) and Goldstein (2021 and 2022).

What Are Individual Critics Saying About ‘Ted Lasso’ Season 4?

Alison Herman of Variety is among the top critics on RT who gives Ted Lasso a “fresh” critics’ score, writing, “If the first three seasons of “Ted Lasso” are effectively one (overlong, especially toward the end) sports movie, then Season 4 is its perfectly routine sequel.”

Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times also gives Ted Lasso Season 4 a “fresh” score, writing on RT, “Strictly speaking, it’s a new adventure, as one Indiana Jones movie might follow another.”

Lauren Sarner of the New York Post deems the fourth season of the series “fresh” as well, writing on RT, "Ted Lasso is back with a fourth season that resets the show with a jolt of much-needed energy."

In her “fresh” review summary of Ted Lasso Season 4, Rachel Aroesti of the Guardian writes, “Ted Lasso is still saccharine business as usual and, no doubt, still a lot of people’s cup of tea.”

Nick Schager of The Daily Beast is among the top critics on RT who gives Ted Lasso Season 4 a “rotten” score. Schager writes in his RT review summary that the new season is “more of the same mirthless mawkishness that sunk the show in the first place, albeit this time with gender-related jokes designed to warm the heart rather than make one laugh.”

Ben Travers of IndieWire isn’t cheering for the fourth season of the series, either, writing in his “rotten” review summary on RT that the series has “the kind of simple framework that should lead to easy wins, and yet “Ted Lasso” keeps stumbling over itself, time and time again.”

‘Ted Lasso’ Season 4 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Drop?

Ted Lasso’s episode counts have varied in the first three seasons of the Apple TV series, with Season 1 consisting of 10 episodes, while Seasons 2 and 3 had 12 episodes each. Season 3, however, is back to the 10-episode format.

Like Wednesday’s Season 4 premiere, all of Ted Lasso’s forthcoming episodes begin streaming on Apple TV on Wednesdays at 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT. For viewers who don’t subscribe to Apple TV, the platform is an ad-free streaming service that costs $12.99 per month after a free seven-day trial.

The Ted Lasso Season 4 release schedule is as follows:

Episode 1: Home— Aug. 5

Episode 2: Title To Be Announced — Aug. 12

Episode 3: Title TBA — Aug. 19

Episode 4: Title TBA — Aug. 26

Episode 5: Title TBA — Sept. 2

Episode 6: Title TBA — Sept. 9

Episode 7: Title TBA — Sept. 16

Episode 8: Title TBA — Sept. 23

Episode 9: Title TBA — Sept. 30

Episode 9: Title TBA — Oct. 7