Hannah Waddingham Moves to Lead Actress Race for 'Ted Lasso' Season 4

Hannah Waddingham will campaign as Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for Season 4 of Ted Lasso, ending three seasons of Supporting Actress submissions for the Apple TV+ show. The category switch, confirmed for the upcoming TV awards season, puts her directly alongside star Jason Sudeikis on the lead ballot.

Why the switch now?

The mechanism is straightforward: the character moved. Rebecca Welton, owner of AFC Richmond, drives the Season 4 arc. The season opens with her landing in Kansas to recruit Ted Lasso (Sudeikis) as manager of Richmond's second-division women's football team, and closes with her winning a high-stakes fight for control of the club and proposing to her longtime boyfriend. Campaigns follow role size, and Apple TV+ now judges the role large enough for the lead field.

The move also tracks the season's stated focus on women who break barriers and redefine leadership.

What the supporting record looks like

Waddingham's prior submissions produced a substantial awards file:

• Three Emmy nominations for Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, with a win in 2021
• Two Golden Globe nominations in the combined Supporting TV Actress field spanning series, miniseries and TV movies
• Two SAG Award nominations in the combined Female Actor in a Comedy Series category, which covers both lead and supporting performances

Juno Temple, who played Rebecca's best friend Keeley Jones and sat beside Waddingham in the Emmy supporting category for all three earlier seasons, will remain in supporting. That keeps the two leads of the women's storyline in separate races.

What changes in the race?

If Waddingham earns another Emmy nomination, she joins a small group of actors nominated in both lead and supporting for the same series. Allison Janney did it twice — for The West Wing, winning in both categories, and for Mom, winning in supporting. Jon Cryer also won in both categories for Two and a Half Men.

The stakes are real for the show's totals. Ted Lasso has won 20 Emmy Awards across its first three seasons, including back-to-back Outstanding Comedy Series and Lead Actor wins for Sudeikis in Seasons 1 and 2. A lead campaign for Waddingham gives Apple TV+ a second flagship acting entry in a season already positioned around its female characters.

Season 4 returned on Aug. 5 after a break following the original three-season arc, and on that release date it ranked as the most-streamed program in the U.S. with more than 200 million viewing minutes, per Nielsen. A Season 5 renewal remains pending.

The new season reunites original cast members Brett Goldstein, Brendan Hunt and Jeremy Swift with Waddingham, Sudeikis and Temple, alongside new additions Tanya Reynolds, Jude Mack, Faye Marsay, Rex Hayes, Aisling Sharkey, Abbie Hern and Grant Feely. Warner Bros. Television produces; Sudeikis, Hunt, Joe Kelly, Jane Becker, Jamie Lee, Bill Wrubel, Jack Burditt, Goldstein, Leann Bowen and Doozier's Bill Lawrence, Jeff Ingold and Liza Katzer executive produce. Sudeikis, Lawrence, Kelly and Hunt developed the series from the preexisting NBC Sports format and characters.

Waddingham's recent credits include the Prime Video series Ride or Die and the films The Woman in Cabin 10, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Lilo & Stitch and Smurfs. On Nov. 5 at The Beverly Hilton, Women In Film will honor her with the Crystal Award for Advocacy in TV.

One category change now gives the Emmys a two-front Ted Lasso campaign.