It may have been a few years since the last Ted movie, but fans are clearly still interested in Seth MacFarlane's foul-mouthed teddy bear.
NBCUniversal confirmed to IGN that Ted broke a record for having Peacock's biggest three-day debut ever for an original series. It should be noted that we don't have any solid numbers for Ted's viewership, but it does mean that it beat the debuts for other Peacock originals like Poker Face, Twisted Metal, Mrs. Davis, and Bel-Air.
As noted by TV Line, which first broke the news of the record, Ted seems to have benefited quite a bit from Saturday night's NFL Wild Card game between the Chiefs and Dolphins, which Peacock streamed exclusively. In a press release, NBCUniversal reported that the game was the biggest live-streamed event in U.S. history, reaching 28 million viewers with average audience peaking at nearly 25 million viewers.
The logic here is clear: sign up for Peacock for the big game, stay for the raunchy talking bear comedy. That may have been NBCUniversal's plan all along, in fact, having dropped all seven episodes of Season 1 on the platform last Thursday.
That's not to say Ted himself isn't a draw. The first film pulled in a healthy $549 million at the worldwide box office in 2012, while Ted 2 made $215 million worldwide three years later (per Box Office Mojo).
Peacock hasn't emerged as one of the bigger players in the streaming wars, but it's still had some wins here and there. Earlier this year, it scored its biggest five-day debut ever with Five Nights at Freddy's despite that horror hit debuting in theaters on the same day.
Ted takes place two decades before the movies and catches up with John Bennett (played by Mark Wahlberg in the films, while Max Burkholder steps in here) in high school, with Ted joining him for shenanigans along the way. IGN gave Season 1 a 6/10, calling it a "a welcome return for everyone’s favorite trash-talking teddy bear, even if he doesn’t have much new to say."
