Ted, the TV prequel to Seth MacFarlane’s caustic films, has been renewed for a second season. Ted, the talking, mean bear, is in high school on the TV show, and it’s a huge hit for Peacock: Variety According to reports, it is the streamer’s most-watched original show to date, and it was the top streaming comedy in the US for more than two consecutive months when it became available to stream.
The show’s success was never really in doubt: the former Ted film was a huge hit, grossing almost $550 million on a low (by movie standards) budget of $65 million, and while the sequel wasn’t as successful, it still grossed a very respectable $215 million.
Retro vibes and an R-rated Alf
Ted was not just an American hit. If Deadline According to reports, in Britain it was Sky’s biggest US comedy launch in more than two decades; in Canada, it was Showcase’s number one show and the top-rated streaming show on StackTV; and in Australia it was Fox8’s biggest international series premiere in two years and the biggest-ever US comedy launch on streaming service Binge.
It’s clear that Ted has found a winning formula, so don’t expect any dramatic changes in the second season: while the details of the season are still under wraps, it will likely follow closely the format of the first season, which mixed gut feelings with surprisingly warm-hearted storylines. It won’t convince anyone who didn’t like the movies – Variety description of Ted since an “R-rated version (of) Alf” is either a recommendation or a scathing review depending on your perspective – but there are clearly a lot of people who loved the films and want more swear words.
If Rolling stone said of the first season, “The carpet-bombed gags don’t always land, but when they do, their cleverness resonates, especially for those of us who lived and consumed culture in the series’ early 1990s time frame.” CNN is also a fan and writes: “(Ted) may not qualify as high art, but in its unpretentious silliness, this Peacock comedy is still more than tolerable.