5 Best TV Shows Like Chad Powers

Glen Powell is known for two things: being really good looking, and being a really charming actor. That’s why it’s so funny that his big TV project, “Chad Powers,” centers around him in a genuinely insane costume that obscures his perfect visage. Like one of the entries on this forthcoming list, “Chad Powers” originated from a skit — specifically, one created by football star Eli Manning for Omaha Productions — and became a show created by Powell himself and Michael Waldron about a star college quarterback named Russ Halliday. As played by Powell, Russ is playing in a national championship game when, after he messes up a game-winning touchdown, he has a fight with a spectator and ends up tipping over a young cancer patient’s wheelchair. Eight years go by, and Russ, desperate to get back into the game, uses his dad’s skills as a makeup artist to disguise himself as a new player named Chad Powers, who tries out for the football team at a rural Georgia university and gets onto the team.

“Chad Powers” is a bonafide hit on Hulu, and with a supporting cast that includes Steve Zahn, Toby Huss, and Colin Woodell (just to name a few), it’s also a total delight. What should you watch, then, if you really love “Chad Powers?” Obviously, we went for sports-related picks here, but you won’t regret binge-watching any of the following five shows.

Ted Lasso

It’s easy to forget, after all the Emmys and acclaim, that “Ted Lasso” — like its spiritual descendant “Chad Powers” — began its life as a sketch, albeit one that its future star Jason Sudeikis came up with for NBC Sports years beforehand. In 2020, right when the world needed a big pick-me-up in the worst era of the COVID-19 pandemic, Apple TV dropped the first season of “Ted Lasso,” created by Sudeikis “Scrubs” showrunner Bill Lawrence, Joe Kelly, and Brendan Hunt and introduced audiences properly to Ted, a friendly Kansas native who ends up coaching a Premier League football team in England named A.F.C. Richmond. One big problem: Ted, an American college football coach, doesn’t know anything about British football, and neither does his assistant, Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt). So how did he get hired? As it turns out, the co-owner of the team, Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) is going through a bitter divorce with her ex and other owner Rupert Mannion (Anthony Head), and she wants to ensure that A.F.C. Richmond loses its spot in the Premier League and falls into ruin with Ted at the helm.

Despite its diminishing quality through Seasons 2 and 3, the first season of “Ted Lasso” — which boasts an incredible ensemble cast that includes Juno Temple, Brett Goldstein, Phil Dunster, Nick Mohammed, and Toheeb Jimoh, ust to name a few — is basically unimpeachable, and it has a lot in common with “Chad Powers.” If you love irreverent half-hour sports comedies like “Chad Powers,” “Ted Lasso” is truly a perfect follow-up.

Friday Night Lights

To be clear, “Chad Powers” is a football comedy, and while “Friday Night Lights” isn’t funny or focused on college football, the two shows are undeniably linked together by their shared sport … and “Friday Night Lights” is just really, really good. Developed by Peter Berg (from H.G. Bissinger’s book “Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream” and Berg’s subsequent film adaptation) with Jason Katims as showrunner, “Friday Night Lights” stars Kyle Chandler as the brusque but big-hearted high school football coach Eric Taylor, who oversees the wildly successful Dillon Panthers. During one game, star quarterback Jason Street (Scott Porter), playing alongside his best friend and fullback Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) and in front of his cheerleader girlfriend Lyla Garrity (Minka Kelly), suffers a career-ending and life-changing injury that results in paralysis from the neck down. As Dillon tries to find a new normal in the aftermath of Jason’s accident, Tim and Lyla strike up an unexpected romance, backup quarterback Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) takes over for Jason, and Eric tries to hold everything together with the support of his loving wife Tami (Connie Britton) and daughter Julie (Aimee Teegarden).

“Friday Night Lights” isn’t just one of the best sports dramas ever made, but just one of the best TV shows you’ll ever watch, period — and it also features major future stars like Michael B. Jordan and Jesse Plemons in its excellent ensemble cast. You definitely won’t regret a full watch of “Friday Night Lights,” whether it’s your first time or 50th.

Sports Night

If you mention Aaron Sorkin’s name, people will probably think of “The West Wing,” “The Newsroom,” or his Oscar-winning script for “The Social Network” … but don’t sleep on his comedy-drama “Sports Night.” Based loosely on the ESPN “SportsCenter” lineup that featured Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann, this dramatic and innovative ABC sitcom stars Josh Charles and Peter Krause as co-anchors Dan Rydell and Casey McCall, who have been working together for years. As the two report on the sporting events of the day, they’re flanked by the show’s managing editor Isaac Jaffe (Robert Guillaume), associate producer and research analyst Jeremy Goodwin (Sorkin regular Joshua Malina, whose social media bios joke that he “ruined” “The West Wing”), Jeremy’s on-again, off-again love interest and senior associate producer Natalie Hurley (Sabrina Lloyd), and the fictional program’s executive producer Dana Whitaker (Felicity Huffman). 

The supporting cast of “Sports Night” is seriously stacked, including everyone from Huffman’s real-life husband William H. Macy to “Meet the Parents” star Teri Polo to future Marvel star Clark Gregg … and if you’ve never watched this particular Sorkin series, you’re in for a treat. After “Chad Powers,” check out “Sports Night.”

Eastbound & Down

If you think “Chad Powers” is funny, we’ve got news for you: the funniest TV sports comedy of all time might just be HBO’s “Eastbound & Down.” Created by Ben Best, Jody Hill, and its star Danny McBride, “Eastbound & Down” centers around McBride’s character Kenny Powers, a Major League Baseball player who ends up retiring because he’s not very good anymore and is also sort of an enormous jerk. Despite increasingly desperate attempts at a public comeback (all of which fail), Kenny spends the series as a physical education teacher at his former middle school.

With his sidekick Stevie Janowski (Steve Little) by his side, Kenny embarks on a number of other doomed missions, like attempts to romance his middle school crush April Buchanon (Katy Mixon) … and elsewhere, the cast of “Eastbound & Down” includes comedy heavyweights like Jillian Bell, Tim Heidecker, Efren Ramirez, Ken Marino, Andy Daly, Craig Robinson, Adam Scott, and even Will Ferrell. Even if you’ve seen other McBride projects like “The Righteous Gemstones,” you absolutely can’t miss “Eastbound & Down,” especially if you love “Chad Powers.”

Netflix is known for canceling shows way too soon, and one of its most tragic casualties is, without question, “GLOW.” This wrestling-centered sports comedy, created by Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, aired for three seasons on the streamer before, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Netflix made a shocking and unfortunate decision on the show’s future and reversed their Season 4 renewal, effectively cancelling it forever. So what is “GLOW” about? The show opens as aspiring actress Ruth Wilder (an amazing Alison Brie), who’s currently engaged in an affair with a married man, auditions for a women‘s wrestling league called GLOW — an acronym for Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling — where the women develop bombastic personalities inside the ring to lure in audiences. One problem: one of Ruth’s fellow aspiring wrestlers who ends up on the team alongside her is Debbie Eagan (the incomparable Betty Gilpin), whose husband is Ruth’s secret boyfriend.

With Marc Malkin as the leader of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, all three seasons of “GLOW” are warm, witty, funny, and deeply heartfelt, and it’s one of Netflix’s toughest cancellations to date. Still, if you love “Chad Powers,” you’ll definitely get a kick out of “GLOW.”