Since its debut in 2020, “Ted Lasso” has been the crown jewel of Apple TV+’s original programming. The premiere of its third season saw 870,000 U.S. households tune in on connected TVs during the first four days following its release on March 15, up 60% from the 546,000 U.S. households during season 2, according to Samba TV.
Despite the Jason Sudeikis-led comedy’s popularity and critical acclaim, those numbers are small for a company at the scale of Apple. Apple is the most highly valued company in the world at $2.5 trillion, and CEO Tim Cook recently touted its 2 billion active devices — iPhones, iPads and Macs whose owners are prime targets for its fast-growing services business, of which Apple TV+ is a small but highly visible component.