What's one more week to wait for the start of another Friday Night Lights football season?  For avid FNL followers, perhaps it's akin to an agonizing eternity of needing to see the Dillon Panthers.  Well, for those of you who just can't hold off another seven days, the sophomore season premiere of Friday Night Lights is now on the web for your viewing pleasure.

But wait – those who'd like to catch FNL's first show of the season must hurry over to Yahoo! TV.  The episode is only available there until Monday, September 30.

Such advance free access to pivotal premieres and succeeding installments is the most recent in a string of marketing and publicity efforts from NBC, to drum up enough support for the Friday Night Lights franchise. Although the series has been given a second wind, its status remains critical and day to day – or in the case of a TV program, week to week.

Over the summer, the network has offered Friday Night Light's first season as web content available for viewing, aside from releasing it on DVD.  The thrust has been to keep the series in the public eye in hopes of giving it a much-needed boost and impetus heading into this fall.

Fortunately for the show, and its faithful supporters, FNL may have gotten an unexpected but timely lifeline from someone who may actually inspire the support NBC is hoping for.  Bill Simmons, writer and known to ESPN fandom as The Sports Guy, has recently wielded his influence and reach to help keep Friday Night Lights on the television playing field.

In his piece entitled “Please, help me keep the 'Lights' on,” which appeared in the September 24 issue of ESPN The Magazine, Simmons gave more than his two cents worth to rally the troops into saving Friday Night Lights.

“If last year's memorable TV phrase was ‘Save the cheerleader, save the world,' I'm declaring this year's to be ‘Save the show.'  NBC is damned close to burying Friday Night Lights, which would be a shame on a number of levels, but none more serious than this one:  It's the greatest sports-related show ever made.  Returning for a second season on Oct. 5, it's a fair bet that FNL will be canceled by Christmas.  And when it is, it's going to be because of people like you.”

Simmons certainly didn't mince words telling his readers, which number quite significantly considering ESPN's magazine circulation, to get off their can and do something to preserve the series.


-Rosario Santiago, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: TV Fodder, ESPN
(Image Courtesy of NBC)