Despite being one of the most successful shows on Peacock, there are currently no plans for a third season of “Ted.” Speaking earlier this month, Seth MacFarlane revealed that the high production costs for the comedy series, which acts as a prequel to the films starring Mark Wahlberg, due to the extensive use of CGI means that the streamer can no longer afford to make more episodes.
‘Ted’ Effectively Cancelled Due to High Production Costs
The second season of “Ted” began streaming on Peacock at the beginning of March but the streamer and studio behind the television series are not planning on a third season due to the excessive budget needed. Like the “Ted” films, the show requires extensive use of CGI to bring the character of Ted — a foul-mouthed anthropomorphic teddy bear — to life.
Speaking to The Wrap, creator and director Seth MacFarlane outlined that despite being willing to move forward with a third season, the team is not currently working on additional episodes.
“What I kept hearing [from Peacock and Universal] was, ‘Listen, the show is really expensive to produce and there’s no way to do it at a lower cost,’” MacFarlane said. “So I said, ‘All right, I hear you loud and clear.’ So I wrote the last scene with Max [Burkholder] walking into a gym, presumably coming out as Mark Wahlberg in the first ‘Ted’ film.”
MacFarlane added, “So [showrunners] Brad Walsh and Paul Corrigan and I kind of painted ourselves into a corner. Is there a way to do it? There’s always a way to do anything. But at the moment, it might take some narrative acrobatics. There’s no plan that I’ve heard of at the moment to do Season 3.”
Explaining how much CGI is needed and how the experience of making the two movies in the franchise has helped, MacFarlane revealed, “It’s like you’re doing an Avengers movie every 22 minutes with the amount of CGI that it takes, not only to animate the bear, but to act the bear. It’s something we couldn’t have done if we had not had the education of doing two films 10 years earlier.”
Seth MacFarlane Recently Began Work on a New Show
Although the fate of “Ted” doesn’t look good, March hasn’t been all bad news for MacFarlane. Earlier this month, Fox and Hulu greenlit a new “Family Guy” spin-off. “Stewie” will follow the character from the animated series as he attends pre-school.
According to reports, Fox and Hulu have ordered two seasons of the spin-off, which will premiere during the 2027-2028 season.
Longtime MacFarlane collaborator Kirker Butler is also involved as a co-creator. They have previously worked extensively on “Family Guy” as a writer.
How disappointing. I found Ted to be hilarious and quirky, I binged the new season in 2 nights and wondered about another season. It’s a shame good shows never last long yet idiotic reality shows go on and on for years.
I never watched Ted so won’t miss it, but is there any word if we will ever see The Orville again?
There were rumors of possibly a Ted continuation in animated form. Not sure if that’s been abandoned but the same reason for the change of format was cited as the live action version was too expensive to continue making.
I have also heard rumors of a 4th season of The Orville coming as well…but nothing new lately.