Friday Night Lights: Final Season Coming to DVD Before NBC?

The end is very near for Friday Night Lights — for DirecTV viewers anyway. The critically-acclaimed drama’s last two episodes are scheduled to air on DirecTV’s Channel 101 on February 2nd and 9th. Everyone else will have to wait until spring (or later) to watch them on NBC — or will they?

The fifth and final season of Friday Night Lights is set to be released on DVD on April 5th. That’s well before the series will wrap on the peacock network. Granted, the ratings for FNL on NBC have never been all that stellar but the episodes are already paid for and most of NBC’s programming is ratings-challenged anyway.

Its unclear why NBC-Universal is taking this approach but it may end up being an experiment that’s more lucrative than airing the episodes on TV and then releasing them via a DVD set. It’s available for pre-order at Amazon for just $26.99.

Here’s an ad for the DVD set, thanks to TVShowsonDVD, …

What do you think? Would you buy the season on DVD or wait for NBC to air the final season? An interesting experiment or a marketing mistake?