Ted Season 2 sent John Bennett toward adulthood with all the grace expected from a teenager whose best friend is a foul-mouthed teddy bear. Its finale even planted the ridiculous explanation for how Max Burkholder’s skinny John eventually becomes Mark Wahlberg’s gym-built version from the movies.

Yet the laughs came attached to one expensive question,would Peacock pay for another live-action season? Seth MacFarlane’s prequel became one of the streamer’s biggest comedy successes, but creating Ted every week requires mountains of CGI.

Peacock has now addressed Season 3, and the bear appears to be changing formats instead.

NBC and Peacock Scripted Content President Lisa Katz gave a remarkably straightforward update when Deadline asked about the live-action show’s future.

“Right now, we are focusing on the animated version,” Katz said.

Katz's comments reveal that Season 3 is on indefinite hold rather than sitting somewhere with a shiny greenlight. MacFarlane had already warned in March that he had heard of “no plan” for another season. He said Peacock and Universal repeatedly stressed how expensive the series was to produce, describing each episode’s CGI workload as essentially making an Avengers movie every 22 minutes.

Fortunately, Ted has not been sentenced to toy-box retirement. TED: The Animated Series is already very real and premieres December 17, 2026, with eight episodes on Peacock. The sequel jumps 12 years beyond Ted 2 and reunites Seth MacFarlane as Ted, Mark Wahlberg as John, Amanda Seyfried as Sam, and Jessica Barth as Tami-Lynn. 

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Ted may be swapping CGI fur for animation cells, but another Peacock comedy is already writing its way toward a possible third season.

Peacock has yet to officially renew The Paper for Season 3, but the newsroom lights are definitely still on. In the same interview Lisa Katz revealed that a writers’ room has been working on potential Season 3 material following the September 9 launch of Season 2. She said audience and consumer response has been as good or better than the first season.

The Office universe successor follows Domhnall Gleeson’s Ned Sampson and the wonderfully dysfunctional staff of the Toledo Truth Teller, with Greg Daniels and Michael Koman steering the mockumentary. Season 2 pushed the newspaper crew into fresh reporting disasters while Ned and Mare’s relationship added another workplace grenade with the pin already halfway out.

Katz hopes upcoming NBC comedies including Happy’s Place, Newlyweds, St. Denis Medical, and The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins will feed comedy audiences back toward Peacock. So Peacock’s comedy machine keeps humming, even while certain projects sit on the bench.

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What do you think about Peacock prioritizing animated Ted over Season 3 of the live-action series? Let us know in the comments.