Ted Lasso
Ted Lasso ran for three seasons on Apple TV+ from 2020 through 2023. The show features Jason Sudeikis as Ted Lasso, an American football coach hired to coach an English soccer team. Ted has no experience in soccer and the team owner, who got ownership of the team in a divorce, secretly hopes he will fail to upset her philandering ex-husband. Think “Major League” with a different purpose. The show was a huge critical and commercial success, although some think it was a product of the pandemic with people stuck at home needing “feel good” shows. The third season is not as critically acclaimed. Ted Lasso was nominated for 20+ Emmys in each season with Brett Goldstein stealing the show as a supporting actor. These are four sports oriented shows like Ted Lasso we think you may like if you liked Ted Lasso.
Shows Like Ted Lasso – Ballers
Ballers ran for five seasons on HBO from 2015 to 2019. It stars Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) as Spencer Strasmore, a former NFL player with a second career as a financial advisor to NFL players. Ballers is nothing like Ted Lasso beyond the sports angle. The first few seasons have a significant amount of sex, nudity and drugs. Later seasons tone down the edge (possibly due to pressure from the NFL?) and switch up the premise from Spencer advising NFL players to trying to buy a team to buying an extreme sports advertising agency. The show went downhill as the premise changed and ratings fell significantly.
However, if you like sports oriented shows, we think you will like Ballers. The first two seasons may be the most accurate portrayal of what it is like to be an NFL player even if the NFL does not want you to believe it.
See streaming options at Ballers.
Shows Like Ted Lasso – Winning Time
Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty ran for two seasons on HBO from 2022 to 2023. It is based on the book “Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s.” Ironically the show has little of the Lakers dynasty, as it only showed 1979 to 1984 before HBO cancelled it. The Lakers only won 2 titles during that time span (of 5 in the 1980s) and the show ends with them losing to the Boston Celtics.
You have to watch this show assuming it is fiction even though based on a true story. Many of the main characters, including Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Jerry West, criticized the inaccuracy of the show, and West threatened to sue over how he was characterized.
If you know anything about the NBA in the 1980s, a lot of it is true, including the actual games, playoffs and championships, owner Jerry Buss’s business strategy for the team, and the turnover in Lakers’ coaches. However, if you assume it is all fiction, it is very entertaining, including the actor portrayals of Abdul-Jabbar, Johnson, West, Buss, rival Larry Bird and more.
We liked this show a lot and believe you will too if you like sports TV shows.
See streaming options at Winning Time.
Shows Like Ted Lasso – Arli$$
Arli$$ ran for seven seasons on HBO from 1996 to 2003. It stars Robert Wuhl as fast-talking, BS artist sports agent Arliss Michaels. The show is very funny and its origins make it even funnier. Wuhl said that he got the idea for the show in 1988 when he read Donald Trump’s book “The Art of the Deal” and thought it was all BS and nothing happened as the book said. So he created a show about a sports agent who says one thing at the beginning in voiceover but the episode shows it was all BS.
The show features cameos of many real professional athletes in several sports playing themselves. Arli$$ does have its detractors, including Entertainment Weekly, which called it “one of the worst shows on television.” I vehemently disagree. I was homebound for about a week and binge watched the entire series. It made a difficult time a lot better. I really enjoyed this show.
If you like sports oriented TV shows and dark or sarcastic comedy, we think you will like this show.
See streaming options at Arli$$.
Shows Like Ted Lasso – Glow
Glow ran for three seasons on Netflix from 2017 through 2019. It is fictional but based on a real 1980s syndicated women’s professional wrestling show “Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.” GLOW follows the wrestlers in 1980s Los Angeles and Las Vegas. It received significant critical acclaim and is a fun watch, particularly with the 1980s setting and costumes.
See streaming options at Glow.
These are four sports oriented shows like Ted Lasso we think you will like.
Want to see shows like Seinfeld? See our post at Seinfeld.
