Seth MacFarlane's 'Ted: The Animated Series' Hits Peacock Dec. 17

Peacock will premiere "Ted: The Animated Series" with its first eight episodes on Dec. 17, the streamer has announced. Additional episodes will follow in 2027.

The show marks the animated continuation of Seth MacFarlane's live-action "Ted" franchise and is set 12 years after the events of "Ted" and "Ted 2." Peacock first announced the project in May 2025.

MacFarlane returns to voice the titular teddy bear come to life. Mark Wahlberg, Amanda Seyfried and Jessica Barth reprise their film roles as John, Sam and Tami-Lynn, respectively. Two new characters join the cast: Kyle Mooney voices Apollo and Liz Richman voices Ruth.

The official logline sets the premise: "Picking up twelve years after the conclusion of the last movie, John (Wahlberg) and his thunder-buddy Ted (MacFarlane) are neighbors, both with families of their own and dead-end jobs. Follow these two lovable stoners as they enable each other's bad ideas about marriage, parenting and the challenges of adult life."

This is the second "Ted" series on Peacock. The streamer previously aired a live-action prequel set during John's high school years, which ran for two seasons with a cast including MacFarlane, Max Burkholder, Alanna Ubach, Scott Grimes and Giorgia Whigham. MacFarlane has said there are no plans for a third season of that show, citing the high cost of production.

MacFarlane created the animated series with Paul Corrigan and Brad Walsh. Corrigan and Walsh, who served as executive producers and showrunners on the prequel, hold the same roles on the new show. Rough Draft Studios provides the animation.

MacFarlane executive produces through his Fuzzy Door banner alongside Erica Huggins, Alana Kleiman, Jason Clark, Aimee Carlson and Claudia Katz. Universal Global Television and MRC produce.

The franchise's box office record gives the streamer clear grounds for the expansion. The first "Ted" film grossed nearly $550 million worldwide in 2012 on a budget of $65 million. The 2015 sequel grossed more than $215 million. Universal Pictures and MRC Films produced both movies.

With the animated format allowing the franchise to continue at a lower cost than the live-action prequel, Peacock now has two parallel "Ted" strands — and a 2027 pipeline of episodes that suggests the thunder-buddies' bad ideas are only getting started.