'Welcome to Wrexham' Season 4 Returns to the Pitch in May

There are two sports in the U.K. that the average American doesn't understand. The best-known is cricket, a not-exactly baseball variant offshoot that includes sticky wickets and cow corners. (No, I don't know what those mean either.) The other is football — not American football with the funny-shaped handegg, but footie football, which Americans and Australians call soccer. For decades, the sport has tried to make inroads in the U.S. with the World Cup and nationalist feeling. However, it turns out that the best way to make Americans love football is to package it as a feel-good reality show like Welcome to Wrexham, which is how the little-known Welsh Wrexham A.F.C. became the most popular team in the U.S.

Welcome to Wrexham was a slightly ingenious notion of taking the fictional Ted Lasso premise — Ignorant American Dropped Into English Football, Hilarity Ensues — and reimagining it for the real world. Instead of a club owner trying to crash and burn their team deliberately, a once-great team long out of the limelight is scooped up by two small-time millionaire comedians from North America. (Rob McElhenny is American, but Ryan Reynolds is technically Canadian.) The results are turned into a reality sports docuseries: one part Welsh cultural programming, one part Footie for Dummies, and 100% heart.

Much like the learning curve the owners went through on screen, the series has also had to adjust expectations and adapt as the team has climbed in popularity and the standings. Initially conceived as a fall-timed show with 13 episodes a pop, the reality of game spoilers and a desire to cover more than just the men's team has caused the show to tighten up, with a slick eight episodes, which air timed to the actual club season in the spring. This ensures the results are still relatively fresh when they are broadcast.