In “Richmond’s Got Talent,” the third episode of “Ted Lasso” Season 4, Ted (Jason Sudeikis) is repeatedly flummoxed when multiple people refer to someone named Susan Boyle. For a majority of the episode, Ted has no idea who that is, but at the 38-minute mark, Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt) walks into the AFC Richmond coaches’ office to find Ted with an emotional look on his face, watching something on his phone. When Beard asks if he’s OK, Ted responds, “Yeah, I’m just finally watching this Susan Boyle audition. She’s the most talented woman on Earth.” Beard nods, pats his chest, and says, “So true.”
If you’ve been active on the internet since the early days of the Obama administration, chances are, you remember Susan Boyle, but if you weren’t, you might be just as confused as Ted.
Boyle was a contestant on “Britain’s Got Talent” in April of 2009, where the then-47-year-old Scottish woman’s spunky attitude as she walked onto the stage and answered the judges’ questions stood in contrast to her physical appearance. Audiences have long been conditioned to expect anyone they see on television to have a certain aesthetic and fall into a conventional mold of attractiveness, but Boyle looked more like a regular person than a model who just stepped off a runway. Judges Simon Cowell and Piers Morgan practically rolled their eyes at Susan from their seats … but when she delivered a powerhouse performance of “I Dreamed a Dream” from “Les Misérables,” years before Anne Hathaway would win an Oscar for singing the same song in the movie adaptation, Boyle became the human embodiment of the old adage, “Never judge a book by its cover.”
The story was so inspirational, Hollywood was even developing a Susan Boyle biopic in 2012. (It never came to fruition.)
Susan Boyle went from reality TV to living her dream
During that audition, Susan Boyle expressed that she wanted to be a professional singer, and in the full broadcast, you can see a couple of cuts to skeptical audience members. But she earned everyone’s respect with her terrific performance, and clips from the show went viral back in a time when attention spans were far less fractured. (The official clip currently has over 12 million views, but there are plenty of rips out there with millions of their own.)
Boyle ultimately finished in second place on “Britain’s Got Talent,” and she was able to parlay that appearance into a legitimate career. As of this writing, she’s released seven full albums and a compilation album, selling over 25 million copies. Her debut album is one of the best-selling albums of the 21st century so far. She’s been nominated for two Billboard Music Awards and even scored two Grammy nominations. Talk about dreaming a dream.
One might think Ted Lasso himself, with his goofy yokel personality and frequent pop culture references, would have used Susan as an example in a teachable moment at some point in his coaching career. But hey, we all have blind spots.
