The Paley Museum in Midtown Manhattan sold out its 200-seat theater and needed two overflow rooms on Friday, August 7, when the cast of “Ted Lasso” arrived for a red carpet event and screening of the first two episodes of the show's fourth season. Jason Sudeikis, Juno Temple, Brendan Hunt, Tanya Reynolds, Faye Marsay, Jude Mack and Abbie Hern all appeared for an in-depth conversation with the cast and creative team, moderated by professional soccer player Megan Rapinoe.
The event, held at the Frank A. Bennack, Jr. Theater and presented by Citi, was reported by amNewYork. Paley Museum president and CEO Maureen J. Reidy attended the program, according to the outlet's account of the night. The Bennack Theater is the museum's flagship venue for industry panels and premieres, and its capacity was overwhelmed by demand for the sold-out screening, per the Paley Center for Media.
A Season Built Around Women's Soccer
Season four shifts “Ted Lasso” toward a new storyline: the AFC Richmond women's soccer team, highlighting female athletes and their experiences in the sport. The cast and creative team prepared for filming by speaking with a USC sports psychologist to help capture the athletic dynamics on screen, the outlet's report noted. New cast member Abbie Hern told the crowd that the show's family dynamics mirror those in real life, adding that the cast is “obsessed with being part of a family.”
Faye Marsay said she felt lucky to be part of a show that supports women's sports, while Brendan Hunt offered a blunter observation about gender dynamics within the fictional club: “In a nutshell, if you ask a man to jump, they ask how high, but if you ask a woman to jump, they ask why.” The remark drew directly on the show's new focus, which arrives as Rapinoe — a two-time Olympic gold medalist and World Cup champion — steered the onstage discussion.
Part of a Citywide Premiere Push
The Midtown panel capped a dense week of New York promotion for the show's return. Apple TV+ had already held an official New York premiere on August 4 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, according to an Apple press release, featuring cast members on the red carpet before the Midtown fan events began. That followed the franchise's global world premiere on July 27 at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, Apple's release states, marking the first public screening of the season before the cast traveled east.
Two days before the Paley Museum event, Apple staged a fan takeover and costume contest at its Fifth Avenue flagship store, drawing hundreds of dressed-up fans for lookalike competitions, as Hoodline previously reported. Season four's ten episodes began releasing weekly on Apple TV+ starting August 5, with new installments scheduled through October 7, according to CNET. The first episode is now available on Apple TV.
A Franchise With a Track Record — and a Real-World Parallel
“Ted Lasso” returns to Midtown screens carrying serious institutional weight: across its first three seasons, the show earned 61 Primetime Emmy nominations and 11 wins, including back-to-back Outstanding Comedy Series victories in 2021 and 2022, per the Television Academy. The new season's pivot to women's soccer also lands amid genuine growth in the sport. The NWSL averaged 11,044 fans per match in the first half of its 2026 season, a 10 percent year-over-year increase, and set an all-time league attendance record of 63,004 fans at a Denver match in March, according to an official league release cited by Soccer Post.
U.S. fan interest in women's professional soccer grew from 30.8 million fans in 2023 to 39.3 million in 2025, according to Nielsen data reported by Mashable, while NWSL digital video views surged 41.7 percent in early 2026. Founded in 1975 by CBS broadcasting pioneer William S. Paley as the Museum of Television & Radio and renamed in 2007, the institution that hosted Friday's panel maintains a public archive of more than 160,000 television and radio programs, giving the “Ted Lasso” cast's Midtown stop a fitting home in the city's broader media history.
