‘Friday Night Lights’ Will Tee It Up on DirectTV
By Robert Bianco and Gary Levin
LOS ANGELES — The lights are still on at NBC’s critically hailed, low-rated Friday Night Lights, but they’re shining somewhere else.
In a novel deal, the show will air 13 episodes on DirecTV starting Oct. 1, then repeat on NBC in February. DirecTV will pair it with Friday Night Lights Live, a call-in show that will allow fans to talk with cast members.
Will the move change the show? “The most important thing for us,” producer Jason Katims told TV writers, “was that we be able to do the show as we’ve always done it, and that’s basically what we intend to do.” He may take advantage of the longer running times possible on DirecTV and the freedom to use more adult content, which would create a version of the show on satellite that is slightly different from the one that runs on broadcast.
The cast is getting smaller: Scott Porter (Jason Street) and Gaius Charles (Smash Williams) no longer will be regulars; both characters have graduated. The story will start with a new football season and school year, even though the old season never ended. “We’ll catch people up on what happened in between with brilliant exposition,” Katims says.
Has the uncertainty bothered the cast? “You can’t have any more offered to you than what we have as actors. It’s incredible to us. It’s very special,” says Kyle Chandler (Coach Eric Taylor). “This is absolutely the beginning of something new. I feel like it’s a brand-new show.”
In other news:
*Saturday Night Live will get a head start on fall to take advantage of the election season, opening earlier than usual on Sept. 13 with four consecutive episodes (22 total, up from a typical 20). Three half-hour prime-time specials will air Oct. 9, 16 and 23, and a 90-minute election-eve special is due Nov. 3 (all at 9:30 ET/PT).
SNL’s Amy Poehler will remain on the show through most of the election season (or at least until she’s due to give birth in October). But she’ll then depart to star in her own new sitcom next year, NBC will announce Monday.
SNL producer Lorne Michaels’ 30 Rock, starring Tina Fey, is due back Oct. 30 but in a schedule change will return at 9:30, following The Office. New comedy Kath & Kim airs at 8:30.
NBC also will head out of the Beijing Olympics with Deal or No Deal and new reality series America’s Toughest Jobs, with special episodes on four Mondays starting Aug. 25. Deal then moves to Wednesdays and Fridays, and Jobs to Fridays.
*CW announced premiere dates for next season: Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill return Sept. 1, with the two-hour premiere of 90210 on Sept. 2 and America’s Next Top Model Sept. 3.
New drama Privileged is due Sept. 9, Smallville and Supernatural Sept. 18, Everybody Hates Chris and The Game Oct. 3, and Stylista, a reality series from Model’s producers, Oct. 29. Reaper and a new reality-horror series, 13: Fear Is Real, will start later.
*Showtime has ordered Nurse Jackie, a dark comedy starring former Sopranos star Edie Falco as a frazzled New York City nurse, due in spring or early summer. Weeds has been renewed for two more 13-episode seasons.
A new six-episode reality series, Lock ‘n Load, puts hidden cameras in a gun store in Englewood, Colo., and focuses on super-salesman Josh Ryan and his customers; it’s also due in 2009.
And Showtime is developing a possible L Word spinoff that would follow the lesbian drama, now readying its final season, and would star one of the women from The L Word as a crossover. (c) Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.