Based on the book of the same name, Friday Night Lights tells the story of the Dillon Panthers, their Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and the fictional city of Dillon, TX — a town that lives and dies with every game their high school football team plays. The series also stars Connie Britton, Gaius Charles, Zach Gilford, Minka Kelly, Taylor Kitsch, Adrianne Palicki, Jesse Plemons, Scott Porter and Aimee Teegarden.
Lights debuted on October 3, 2006 to solid critical support on NBC. Though Lights has many devoted fans, the general public seems to be missing it. The series was recently honored with a Peabody Award but the Lights has averaged only 6.2 million viewers.
Friday Night Lights has a lot of fans at the network but NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly has noted that the series hasn’t found a good timeslot, making the justification for a renewal all the more tricky.
Though the series has not officially been renewed, an early script order for season two is certainly a good sign. At the very least, it indicates that NBC still has interest in renewing Lights for a second season. Reilly has noted, “We love the show creatively, and it’s got a passionate core audience. All of that is going to work in its favor.”
It should be noted that the network has also done its best to make Lights available to viewers to grow its audience. NBC re-airs episodes on their cable sister channel Bravo, makes them available for free on NBC.com, sells them on iTunes, and plans to release a DVD season set in the Summer.
The finale of Lights’ 22-episode season airs tonight and reportedly offers some closure should the drama not return. NBC will announce its Fall schedule plans by mid-May. We’ll know by then if the network and fan support has paid off. Go Panthers! Stay tuned!
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