Guest Stars News

Landry Clarke is about to have some new competition, according to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello.

Friday Night Lights has tapped former As the World Turns troublemaker Zach Roerig to join the cast of the critically acclaimed show as Cash, a local rodeo star who does his best to lasso Adrianne Palicki's Tyra Collette.

As executive producer Jason Katims teased back in July, Cash will appear just as Tyra's romance with Landry is cooling off.

"Tyra in the past eight months has [realized] that, while she loves Landry, she kind of feels like he's not really The Guy," he said.

"So it becomes a story about 'Are they going to be able to be friends? And will Landry be able to accept that?'"

There's something Friday Night Lights' Matt Saracen wants. Bad. To get it, he'll have to go through the woman who brought him into the world.

And playing the long-estranged mom of Matt (Zach Gilford) will be Kim Dickens, a.k.a. Deadwood's Joanie Stubbs, TV Guide reveals.

To date, not much has been revealed about Matt's never-seen mom.

He's led folks to believe she was far removed from his world, the truth is that she's been much closer — geographically — than thought.

That alone speaks volumes about the tension between the two when Matt Saracen finally comes knocking on her door - with a purpose.

Dickens — who will also be familiar to Lost fans from her role as Sawyer's "long con," Cassidy Phillips — first appears as Shelby Saracen in episode two of Season 3, which kicks off October 1 on DirecTV.

Friday Night Lights will feature a pair of new faces when it returns in the fall: Janine Turner (Northern Exposure) and D.W. Moffett (Life Is Wild, Hidden Palms) have been cast in recurring roles of Katie and Joe McCoy.

The affluent McCoys move to Dillon from Dallas, with their (as-yet-uncast) teen son in tow. The kid is a high school freshman with major football skills who will be fancied by many as the new Jason Street.

That, as you can imagine, will put even more pressure on Dillon's current QB-1 Matt Saracen. Poor Matt Saracen. His life is never far from mucho drama, be it with the ladies, his family, or football.

Katie and Joe will be introduced in the first two episodes of the third season, which premieres October 1 on DirecTV. NBC then unspools new Friday Night Lights episodes starting in early 2009.

Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am has released a new music video aimed at boosting the hopes of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Called "We Are The Ones," it features a pair of Friday Night Lights stars.

Backed by music and the vocal refrain of "O-BA-MA! O-BA-MA!," celebrities such as our own Adrianne Palicki and Jesse Plemons - along with Jessica Alba, Ryan Phillippe, Kerry Washington, George Lopez and many others - offer reasons why they support Barack Obama. The candidate's voice can also be heard.

It's very cool. Check it out here ...

Friday Night Lights has a new recruit in Aaron Garza, a former Texas high school football star and current minor league baseball player scheduled to appear on the critically acclaimed NBC drama next month, BuddyTV reports.

Garza is making good on his promise to venture into acting in the event a career in baseball fails to pan out. The Traverse City Beach Bums player will make his Friday Night Lights debut on December 7 in the role of the defensive captain for the Dillon Panthers' latest opponents on the gridiron.

Aaron Garza signed with the Traverse City Beach Bums in the middle of last summer, after completing his senior season at Texas State University. Garza hit .341 with 15 doubles and 5 home runs as a senior at Texas State.

Before he wowed audiences with his batting skills, Garza lived his own version of the Friday Night Lights lifestyle as an All-District and All-Central wide receiver for Westlake High School in Austin, Texas, where the series is filmed.

He has also appeared in several national TV commercials for Wal-Mart, Captain Crunch, Radio Shack and Budweiser, among others. He has also modeled for Saks Fifth Avenue and Texas Monthly Magazine of late.

It wasn't too long ago that HBO pulled the plug on the surfer drama, John from Cincinnati. However, fans of the show's star, Austin Nichols, can continue to get their fix thanks to his new stint on Friday Night Lights.

Nichols, whose multi-episode arc began last Friday, plays Noah Barnett, a new teacher at Dillon High who forms a bond with Julie Taylor (Aimee Teegarden), the teenage daughter of guidance counselor Tami Taylor (Connie Britton).

In an interview with TV Guide, Nichols said his character's relationship with Julie may go beyond what's considered appropriate student-teacher relations.

"In the beginning, my character doesn't even realize that he's overstepping boundaries," Austin Nichols said. "Or if he does, he chooses to ignore them. It's blatant that he's crossing the line, but he doesn't feel any remorse until later."

Austin Nichols as teacher Noah Barnett in "Pantherama!"

The 27-year-old also said that even if it might seem out of character for Julie to get involved with an older man, the fact that she's going through very real issues is enough to drive her to do something unexpected.

"Well, what's great about the show is that Julie is definitely sweet but, like all of the characters, she is so complicated," Austin Nichols said. "She is emotional and just going nuts with adolescence, fighting with her parents... It's so real."

Aside from having an array of complicated characters, Nichols, a native of Austin, Texas, where the show is filmed, said that Friday Night Lights has successfully captured the essence of small-town Texan football culture.

"I had never seen it, though I had heard it was great, and then they offered me this character. I watched a bunch of episodes and was in tears," he said.

"The show resonated with me so much because I lived in that world and know about it, but it probably resonates for anybody who watches it. They nail it."

Although Nichols has finished filming his stint on Friday Night Lights, his fans can rejoice in knowing that the actor may return to the series again.

"I'm done for now, but I've heard they want to bring me back," he said. "I think it's in the works that Noah will come back."

Well, this much is for sure - nobody can ever accuse Matt Czuchry of being a victim of typecasting. Sources confirm to TV Guide that Matt Czuchry is following up his memorable stint as hard-living bad boy Logan on Gilmore Girls with a markedly different stint on Friday Night Lights - as a devout Christian.

He's being introduced to the show via the newly religious Lyla Garrity. He will first appear on screen on the 12th (of 15 episodes) installment of Friday Night Lights' Season 2 as Lyla guests on his Christian radio show. Sounds like fun!

Unemployment didn't last long for Austin Nichols, the Austin-based actor who starred as the surfing savant in HBO's short-lived "John From Cincinnati." He will be appearing on the Austin-filmed Friday Night Lights this fall!

Nichols, who also appeared in HBO's "Deadwood," has come home for a guest role in the Austin-based NBC series about high school football and teenagers growing up in an often turbulent small town environment.

Austin will not appear in the October 5 Season 2 opener, "Last Days of Summer," but his multiple-episode story arc will begin soon after.

Friday Night Lights executive producer Sarah Aubrey will reveal few details but confirms that Nichols will play a teacher at Dillon High.

Best known in Central Texas as a water skiing champ, like his mother Kay Nichols, Nichols grew up on Lake Austin, attended Casis Elementary and McCallum High School in Austin before heading to the University of Southern California where he earned a degree in creative writing in 2002.

With less than a month to go until Season Two debuts, TV Guide's Michael Ausiello has the casting scoop on one of the show's new guest stars.

Sources confirm that Jessalyn Gilsig of Boston Public and Nip/Tuck fame has been recruited to play the recurring role of Connie Britton's hip, single and smart sister who moves to Dillon in the second season of Friday Night Lights.

We look forward to seeing Jessalyn Gilsig in Season Two!

Look out, criminals. The streets of Dillon, Tex., are about to get a whole lot safer.

TV Guide reports that Glenn Morshower, best known for his recurring role as Secret Service Agent Aaron Pierce on 24, will join the cast of Friday Night Lights for its second season.

Morshower will play the father of Landry Clarke (Jesse Plemons), the geeky best friend of quarterback Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford).

Landry's dad is a local policeman and former Dillon football player. It's safe to assume that the relationship with his son - an awkward kid who fronts a Christian heavy metal band and resents the popularity of the town's football players - will be strained.

Friday Night Lights should be easy work for the veteran actor.

Glenn Morshower grew up in Texas, and has made a career out of playing similar characters in film and TV. His resume boasts 53 different law enforcement or military-based roles.

A police officer in Dillon, Texas, makes 54.

It's his role on 24 that has earned him the most notoriety. Morshower is the only actor besides Kiefer Sutherland to appear in all six seasons of the hit FOX show. Which, on a series known for its propensity for killing characters off at any time, is a small miracle.

Glenn Morshower recently received his first Screen Actors Guild Award nomination as part of the acting ensemble of the show last season.

The critically acclaimed Friday Night Lights returns for its second season Friday, October 5, at 9 p.m.