‘Ted Lasso’ Makes History with Four Primetime Emmy Award Wins, Including Outstanding Comedy Series

It looks like Apple TV+ officially has its first major hit on its hands, as popular comedy series Ted Lasso cleaned up at the Emmys over the weekend.

When Apple first debuted Ted Lasso last year, it was a watershed moment for the fledgling Apple TV+ service, bringing in a whole new crop of viewers, and when Season 2 debuted this past summer, it became the biggest premiere in the service’s 18-month history, easily surpassing all prior records for the biggest single-day premiere, the largest opening weekend, and the number one debut by a healthy margin. In fact, it brought in more viewers than Tom Hanks’ virtual box office hit, Greyhound.

However, Ted Lasso also broke another even more significant record when it earned 20 Emmy nominations, overtaking the 19 nominations Glee received in 2010 to become the most-nominated freshman comedy series in Emmy Awards history.

Ted Lasso isn’t the first Apple TV+ series to be nominated for, or even win, an Emmy Award — Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon’s The Morning Show picked up eight nominations last year, with actor Billy Crudup taking away the award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.

This means The Morning Show already set the record for the first Apple TV+ Emmy, while also making it the first streaming service to win a Primetime Emmy Award in its first year of operation, and Apple also picked up two Daytime Emmy Awards for Ghostwriter and Peanuts in Space: Secrets of Apollo 10, but now Ted Lasso has left those in the dust, with a total of seven Primetime Emmy wins, dominating the comedy series category.

Outstanding Comedy Series

While Ted Lasso’s nominations covered everything from acting and writing to sound mixing and picture editing, it managed to take away four of the biggest Primetime Emmy Awards in the product category, including the overall Outstanding Comedy Series and Oustanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. Here’s the full list:

1. Outstanding Comedy Series: Ted Lasso won the much-coveted overall category award for the best comedy series, against other contenders black-ish, Cobra Kai, Emily in Paris, Hacks, pen15, The Flight Attendant, and The Kominsky Method.
2. Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series: Jason Sudeikis beat out Anthony Anderson (black-ish), Kenan Thompson (Kenan), William H. Macy (Shamless), and Michael Douglas (The Kominsky Method).
3. Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series: The Emmy went to Hannah Waddingham for her portrayal of Rebecca Welton, where she edged out her series co-star Juno Temple, along with Saturday Night Live’s Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon, and Cecily Strong, Hannah Einbinder of Hacks, and Rosie Perez of The Flight Attendant.
4. Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series: Four out of the eight nominations in this category were for Ted Lasso, with Brendan Hunt, Nick Mohammed, and Jeremy Swift also vying for the Emmy, but the nod went to Brett Goldstein for his role as Roy Kent, also beating out Saturday Night Live’s Kenan Thompson and Bowen Yang, and Carl Clemons-Hopkins of Hacks.
   

In addition to the four big awards, Apple also came away with Comedy Series Emmy Awards for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing, Outstanding Sound Mixing, and Outstanding Casting, giving Ted Lasso a total of seven awards out of 20 nominations.

Other Awards

While Ted Lasso was easily the big overall winner, it wasn’t the only Apple TV+ series to pick up Emmy Awards. Apple also received wins for four of its other shows:

• Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Special for Boys State
• Outstanding Short Form Comedy, Drama or Variety Series for Carpool Karaoke: The Series
• Outstanding Innovation in Interactive Media for For All Mankind: Time Capsule, For All Mankind
• Outstanding Motion Design for Calls
  

Apple TV+ was still dwarfed by HBO and HBO Max, which led the pack with 130 nominations and took away 19 Emmys in total, with nine of those being Primetime Emmy Awards.

Meanwhile, Netflix walked away with 44 Emmys — the most ever for a single platform — 11 of which were for The Crown. Only 10 of those were Primetime Emmys, however, with the other 34 coming on the Creative Arts side, which covers things like set design, and sound mixing. The Crown did, however, come away with the Emmy for best drama series, rivalling Ted Lasso’s best comedy series win.

Still, Netflix has a six-year head start on Apple, having launched its first original programming back in 2013, and it still took two years before it won its first Primetime Emmy, and it was only at this year’s 2021 Emmys that it took away its very first Best Lead Actor and Best Series awards, both in the Drama category for The Crown.

So it’s pretty significant that Apple TV+ has already managed to pick up a total of eight Primetime Emmys in less than two years of operation, including two top awards. By contrast, its other streaming rivals didn’t fare nearly as well. Amazon and Hulu were completely shut out this year, and although Disney+ collected 14 awards in total — almost twice as many as last year — only one of those was a Primetime Emmy.