‘Ted Lasso’ Theme Song Switch: Why Brandi Carlile Took Over for Marcus Mumford in Season 4 Finale — and Is It a Permanent Change?

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for the Season 4 finale of “Ted Lasso,” now streaming on Apple TV.

“Ted Lasso” viewers most definitely noticed a big change at the start of the show’s Season 4 finale, “The Departing Lass.” The series’ usual theme song, co-written and performed by Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Sons and composer Tom Howe, wasn’t there. Instead, it was a cover of the tune, performed by singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile.

“Ted Lasso” executive producer and star Jason Sudeikis has been pals with Carlile for years — at least from the “Saturday Night Live” episode in 2021 where he hosted and she was musical guest. So when it was time to rework the show’s title theme for the Season 4 finale, he gave the singer/songwriter a call.

Fellow executive producer and star Brendan Hunt, who plays Coach Beard on the show, told Variety that Sudeikis has been a Carlile fan for years — and that the two of them have seen her perform at multiple shows.

“Jason has talked about for a while, that at some point the theme song should be presenting the change and what the show is now, from the men’s team to the women’s team, and we should have it being sung by a woman’s voice,” Hunt said. “But he wanted the handover to be to be graceful in some way and not just suddenly do it. “I think he just saw this opportunity here and went to and went to Brandi for it.”

Carlile’s music had previously been heard on the show via her cover of “Home” from “The Wiz,” which was featured in a Season 3 episode. But moving forward, should “Ted Lasso” return for a Season 5, this could potentially be the show’s new theme.

Hunt said he was bowled over by Carlile’s cover. “Jason invited me and my wife over to the house, and he said, ‘I got something to play for you guys,’ and he played me the full-length version of Brandi’s new version of the of the theme,” he said. “I just bawled, absolutely bawled. I hope that Apple puts out the whole recording because the 30-second snippet we get for the credits is one thing, but the full version is just staggering. It’s her and the whole band and everybody is bringing their ‘A’ game for it. It’s really, really powerful.”

“Ted Lasso” has switched out the Marcus Mumford/Tom Howe theme one other time: In the Season 2 standalone episode “Beard After Hours,” which followed Hunt’s character through a wild evening, the opening featured a song by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy.

Here is the “Ted Lasso” Season 4 finale opening title sequence by Carlile: