Friday Night Lights

I'll admit it:  sometimes I hear a piece of news that makes me squeal with glee.  It's a very manly squeal of course, but it's loud and shrill nonetheless.  This is the sound I made when I found out that NBC is very close to striking a deal to bring Friday Night Lights back for a third season.  As we reported previously, NBC has been shopping the show around in an attempt to strike a deal with another company that would help alleviate the costs of the low-rated drama.  Now it looks like DirecTV is ready to step in and partner with NBC to help bring the series back for another year.  However, what will this mean for the loyal viewers of the underrated drama?

The exact nature of the deal won't be made public until it's official, but the likely scenario is that the first run of new Friday Night Lights episodes would air exclusively on DirecTV.  However, the episodes would encore on NBC shortly thereafter, which means you wouldn't have to rush out and subscribe to DirecTV just to see FNL.  This is very similar to the deal NBC brokered with USA to save Law & Order: Criminal Intent from cancellation. USA runs new episodes of the series first, then they encore later on NBC.  Not only does it expand the audience for the series, but it helps the network take care of some of the costs.

Why would DirecTV be interested in such a deal?  It's likely that they're looking for some sort of exclusive content to draw in subscribers.  Though Friday Night Lights only pulls in an average of six million viewers, it could still be a big boon for the company if a chunk of those people switch to DirecTV.  It'll also make the company look like big time heroes, at least in my eyes.

Though this deal isn't 100 percent confirmed, it's basically just awaiting a few signatures.  In the next day or two we should officially be able to break out the pom-poms and do three cheers for the Dillon Panthers.


- Don Williams, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: TVGuide.com, Deadline Hollywood Daily
(Image courtesy of NBC)