Peacock has given a second-season pickup to Ted, the prequel TV series to Seth MacFarlane‘s Ted film franchise.The seven-episode initial installment of Ted, released January 11, was billed as an event series. Its overwhelming ratings success, becoming Peacock’s most-watched original series to date and the No. 1 original streaming comedy in the U.S. for more than two consecutive months in the Nielsen rankings, naturally triggered a conversation about a second season.Despite Ted‘s excellent performance, the renewal decision was not straightforward, I hear, as the comedy’s hybrid live-action/CGI nature makes it expensive to produce (according to some estimates, the budget is pushing $10M an episode), and it also takes a long time to make.Still, keeping its biggest hit was important to Peacock, and four months after the Season 1 drop, the streamer has ordered a second season.Set in 1993, Ted comes from writer, director, executive producer and showrunner MacFarlane. In it, Ted the bear’s (MacFarlane) moment of fame has passed. He’s now living back home in Framingham, Massachusetts, with his best friend,16-year-old John Bennett (Max Burkholder), along with John’s parents, Matty and Susan (Scott Grimes and Alanna Ubach) and cousin Blaire (Giorgia Whigham). Ted may be a lousy influence on John, but at the end of the day, he’s a loyal pal who’s always willing to go out on a limb for friendship.Scott Grimes also stars in the series, produced by UCP — a division of Universal Studio Group — MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door and MRC.Paul Corrigan and Brad Walsh are writers, executive producers and co-showrunners. Also executive producing are Erica Huggins, Alana Kleiman, Jason Clark and Aimee Carlson (Fuzzy Door Productions).In addition to Ted’s strong U.S. viewership, the series also did well in English-speaking territories internationally. In the UK, it was the biggest U.S. comedy launch on Sky in more than 20 years; in Australia, it was Fox8’s No. 1 international series premiere in the past two years and the biggest U.S. comedy launch on streaming service Binge; and in Canada, it was the No. 1 series on Showcase this year, while being the top-ranked show for streaming on StackTV (VOD) during its Season 1 run.
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