The Apple TV+ comedy sensation “Ted Lasso” triumphed at the 2021 Critics Choice Awards, winning the coveted Best Comedy Series, Best Actor in a Comedy Series for Jason Sudeikis, and Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for Hannah Waddingham, sweeping all categories in which the widely acclaimed series was nominated. The honors for “Ted Lasso,” which has become a global cultural phenomenon, were announced by the Critics Choice Association at their 26th Annual Critics Choice Awards ceremony this evening.
This marks “Ted Lasso” star and executive producer Jason Sudeikis’ first Critics Choice Award nomination and win, on the heels of winning Best Actor in a Comedy Series at the Golden Globe Awards.
Apple Original Films’ documentaries “Boys State” and “Beastie Boys Story” were also previously honored with Critics Choice Awards for Best Political Documentary and Best Music Documentary, respectively, in November 2020 at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards. “Boys State” subject Steven Garza was also honored as one of the Most Compelling Living Subjects of a Documentary.
At last year’s Critics Choice Awards, Apple’s hit series “The Morning Show” was honored with Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for star Billy Crudup less than one year after the launch of Apple TV+.
Including today’s recognitions, Apple has been honored with a total of 297 awards nominations and accolades, and 78 awards wins since its global launch just over a year ago.
Since its debut only six months ago, Apple’s hit original series “Ted Lasso’’ has become a standout around the world. The AFI Award-honored Television Program of the Year and freshman comedy series has landed recognition from SAG, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Writers Guild of America. Series creator and star Sudeikis also received his first Golden Globe Award nomination and win, as well as his first SAG Award nomination for his role. In addition, the cast has been nominated by the Screen Actors Guild for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.
“Ted Lasso” stars Sudeikis as Ted Lasso, a small-time college football coach from Kansas hired to coach a professional soccer team in England, despite having no experience coaching soccer. Waddingham, Brendan Hunt, Jeremy Swift, Juno Temple, Brett Goldstein, Phil Dunster and Nick Mohammed star alongside Sudeikis in the ensemble cast.
In addition to starring, Sudeikis serves as executive producer, alongside Bill Lawrence via his Doozer Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television and Universal Television, a division of NBCUniversal Content. Doozer’s Jeff Ingold also serves as an executive producer with Liza Katzer as co-executive producer. The series was developed by Sudeikis, Lawrence, Brendan Hunt and Joe Kelly, and is based on the pre-existing format and characters from NBC Sports.
Customers can now watch the complete first season of “Ted Lasso” exclusively on Apple TV+ on the Apple TV app.
MacDailyNews Take: If you haven’t yet sampled Ted Lasso, here’s a taste to wet your whistle:
Congratulations, Apple, for a job well done. As usual, you have produced another premium product for discerning consumers.
CelebreTARD meaningless awards TxSycophant Apple suck up…
The main problem is that Wall Street doesn’t care about how many awards are being won. Wall Street only cares about how many subscribers are being won over to join Apple’s streaming service and Apple is still near the bottom of the heap while Netflix dominates everything.
More than award winning shows, a SVOD service requires plenty of content of all types to grab subscribers and hold them in the long-term. Subscribers need plenty of varied foods, not just some steak every once in a while. As I’ve said before, it really depends upon what Apple expects from Apple+. If it’s only going for great content, then maybe what they’re doing is good enough. However, if Apple+ is expected to challenge rival SVOD companies for subscriber numbers, then Apple is definitely not doing enough. Too bad, Apple is in a great position to grow subscriber numbers if they’d be willing to spend money on decent filler video content.
The main question is what is Apple’s focus? You make a good point about subscribers base but that may not be Apple’s aim or focus here. Apple’s business model and discipline has always been product leadership rather than mass market / selling the most widgets. In a competitive market of streaming services, one has to differentiate itself from the rest and attract customers that gravitate towards that spectrum of value. The problem with having so much content is you don’t really know what’s quality programing and what’s not – the same conundrum we use to have with 500 cable channels – no one wants to sift through all that to get to something good. With Apple, you know whatever you pick, its going to be worth watching. I think that’s their approach, and not everyone’s gonna sign up for that but definitely certain segment of people like myself will.
My favorite scene!! Thanks for posting MDN
One of MANY great scenes!
Apple is making too much good media that attracts me away from making art.
Probably a good move for you, retire…