Friday Night Lights News

Post moved to TV Fanatic

Post has been moved to TV Fanatic.

Post moved to TV Fanatic.

Looks who's running away from Dillon, Texas, to the home of Dylan Walsh!

Sources tell E! that Aimee Teegarden (Julie Taylor), of the ultra-talented Friday Night Lights cast, has just been cast on the CW's 90210.

The CW says Aimee Teegarden will be playing Rhonda, a West Beverly High student who will cross paths with one of the other characters.

Clearly, Aimee is an integral part of the Friday Night Lights cast, so does her move to 90210 mean Friday Night Lights is again in danger?

According to NBC, Friday Night Lights will not produce more than 13 episodes for the current Season 3, and they have just wrapped production.

Still, this does not mean that Friday Night Lights is canceled.

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A brief note on Friday Night Lights from TV Guide's Matt Roush in his weekly Q&A today ...

Q: I was just curious if you have any thoughts on the third season of Friday Night Lights. Normally you have lots to say about this fantastic show, but I'm guessing you're waiting until the current third season airs on NBC to weigh in. The November 19 "New York, New York" episode, though, was particularly great in my opinion. Without giving anything away, the awesomeness included: the after-dinner football at the Taylor house, Coach's final decision on the new house followed by Tami's reaction, Tim's enthusiasm for Broadway and Scott Porter's performance on the doorstep. Would you agree Friday Night Lights has regained whatever it may have lost in Season Two?

A: I've made note several times lately how impressed I have been by this third season, but this particular episode blew me away. (Actually, it blew my box of tissues away. I lost it several times during the episode.) The scenes between the Coach and Matt Saracen, resolving his awkward position on the team; the Coach and his wife, confronting a real-estate opportunity that made no economic sense; and especially between Jason Street and Tim Riggins, as these best buds visit the Big Apple (with a pit stop at Gypsy?)... really, it was all so memorable and moving, so entertaining and ennobling.

Mark your calendars, Dillon Panthers fans.

NBC has, at long last, announced the network premiere date for Season 3 of Friday Night Lights! It all begins Friday, January 16 at 9 p.m.

New episodes of this critically acclaimed fan favorite have been airing on DirecTV's 101 Network on Wednesdays, and those of us who've seen them can assure you Season Three of Friday Night Lights is definitely worth the wait.

Just to sweeten this good news a little more, here's Taylor Kitsch (Tim Riggins) on the FNL set in Austin, Texas, talking about going shirtless...

Here's a little Friday Night Lights spoiler / news item from Michael Ausiello's column at Entertainment Weekly today, re: tonight's episode ...

Q: I've noticed that Jeffrey Reiner hasn't directed many episodes of Friday Night Lights this season. He's such a great talent. Do you know what happened?

A: No clue, but he directed Scott Porter's swan song tonight, and guess what? It's a work of freakin' art! One scene in particular, involving Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, deserves to be played on an endless loop at the Museum of Television and Radio. Definitely one of my favorite Coach and Tami moments to date. Friday Night Lights spoiler-wise, someone suffers a heart attack, Tyra makes what could be the biggest mistake of her life (and that's saying something considering the mess last year), and Matt comes up with a surprising solution to his QB problem.

If you have DirecTV, you'll be watching tonight's Friday Night Lights, "How the Other Half Live" on the 101 Network. You're reading this, after all!

And after the episode, stick around for the premiere of Live From Dillon, a new live call-in show that E! Online's Kristin Dos Santos will host.

There you will get the chance to ask questions (over the phone, via email or text message) of the Friday Night Lights cast in Austin, Texas.

Each Wednesday for the next six weeks, they will have different cast members as live guests on the show, starting tonight with the Garritys: Minka Kelly (Lyla) and Brad Leland (Buddy). That should be a good interview!

Live From Dillon airs immediately following the 9 p.m. EDT episode of Friday Night Lights on DirecTV's 101 Network. Check it out if you can!

A quick note on Friday Night Lights ratings from TV Guide today ...

Q: How are Friday Night Lights' ratings on DirecTV? I'm concerned that if they aren't high enough, NBC won't air the show this winter as promised.

A: Fret not. First of all, I can't imagine NBC not airing Friday Night Lights at this point. They still have to figure out if this DirecTV experiment worked, and they can't do that without correlative network ratings. As for its DirecTV run, the season premiere ranked No. 7 "I Knew You When ..." in its timeslot among all basic cable channels, but an impressive second among women 18-to-49, which means… what, exactly? Not sure, but DirectTV tells us they are "very pleased" with those results.

Now that Friday Night Lights is airing on a satellite television channel, it is time to re-evaluate its definition of commercial success.

After two seasons on NBC, the critically acclaimed drama about a small Texas town and its football team made its debut Wednesday on DirecTV.

It will run on DirecTV exclusively for four months before starting its third season on NBC in February. The arrangement defrays production costs.

In its first two seasons, Friday Night Lights averaged 6.2 million viewers on NBC, a relatively low rating for a major network broadcast.

Wednesday’s DirecTV debut reached a much smaller audience – 400,000 – but then again, the satellite universe is also much smaller.

DirecTV counts 17.1 million subscribers. NBC reaches 100 million homes.

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