Friday Night Lights (TV series)

For the 2004 film, see Friday Night Lights (film).

Friday Night Lights
File:FNL Un.JPG
Created by	Peter Berg Brian Grazer David Nevins
Starring	Kyle Chandler Connie Britton Gaius Charles Zach Gilford Minka Kelly Taylor Kitsch Adrianne Palicki Jesse Plemons Scott Porter Aimee Teegarden
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	22 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	43 Minutes (Approx) Timeslot: 60 Minutes including commercials
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	October 3, 2006 – present

Friday Night Lights is an award winning American television serial drama adapted by Peter Berg, Brian Grazer and David Nevins from a book of the same name. The series details events surrounding the Dillon Panthers, a high school football team based out of fictional Dillon, Texas. The show uses this backdrop to address many of the issues that face contemporary Middle America.

Produced by NBC Universal Friday Night Lights initially received an order of 12 episodes and began airing on October 3, 2006 at 8:00pm on NBC. NBC increased this number on November 13, 2006 ordering a full season of 22 episodes.

The show has met with much critical acclaim being the second highest rated new show on MetaCritic (behind The Nine which was cancelled midseason) but has not met with much ratings success having consistently placed below 50 in the Nielsen rankings. Because of this NBC is waiting until it reveals its new fall schedule in May to announce whether the show has been renewed for a second season though NBC President Kevin Reilly has both indicated that renewal is likely and directed producers to begin work on the first 6 scripts of Season 2.

In addition to the United States the program is aired in Canada, The Philippines and the United Kingdom as well as being available on iTunes and streamed on NBC.com.

Characters

Major Roles

• Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) — The varsity football coach of the Dillon Panthers. Under immense pressure to succeed, he is constantly conflicted between what is right and what will win. He doesn't seem to approve of his daughter and Matt Saracen, the team quarterback, dating. He has accepted a coaching job in Austin at fictional Texas Methodist University (TMU), and the team gets the news right before the championship game.
• Tami Taylor (Connie Britton) — The wife of Eric Taylor and mother of Julie Taylor and a guidance counselor at Dillon High. Often acts as the voice of reason to Coach Taylor, and has just found out she is pregnant. Does not want to move to Austin.

• Julie Taylor (Aimee Teegarden) — Daughter of Eric and Tami Taylor. Also attends Dillon High School, but in the past, hasn't associated much with the team. Recently has been dating Matt Saracen. REALLY does not want to move to Austin.

• Jason Street (Scott Porter) — The former starting quarterback of the Dillon Panthers. Was one of the top high school quarterbacks in the nation, but suffered a severe spinal injury in the first game of the season while successfully tackling a defender in what would have been a game ending touchdown. The injury left him physically disabled and with limited use of his hands. Now must deal with rehab and life after football, his fiance's past cheating on him with Tim Riggins, and Buddy Garrity's constant harassment over his current relationship with his daughter. Following the accident and several months of rehabilitation, Jason has now taken up the sport of wheelchair rugby, and is currently trying out for the national team, but was not chosen because of his lack of experience with his wheelchair. He has recently joined the Dillon coaching staff and is acting as a mentor to QB Matt Saracen.

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The cast of Friday Night Lights (Connie Britton not shown).

• Lyla Garrity (Minka Kelly) — Former fiance of Jason Street and former Panthers cheerleader. With Jason looking at extensive rehab after a catastrophic injury, Lyla must deal with emotional conflict between staying with Jason or moving on. Recently cheated on Jason with Tim Riggins, Jason's best friend. Her father is Buddy Garrity, owner of a car dealership, the Dillon Panthers' biggest booster, and was recently tossed out by his wife for having a fling with Tyra Collette's mother.

• Tyra Collette (Adrianne Palicki) — Tim Riggins' on-again, off-again girlfriend and the town "vixen" of Dillon. She seems to be one of the only people in the town who doesn't follow football religiously, and is often disdainful of the way the Dillon Panthers are worshipped. She has expressed an interest in leaving Dillon, but currently still lives with her single mother, Angela. Has recently become friendly with Landry, after often showing her dislike of him. It appears their friendship will grow as Landry appeared to comfort and help her almost immediately after a man attempted to rape her.

• Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) — The former backup, now starting quarterback of the Dillon Panthers. Lacks the talent and polish of Jason Street but his passion and heart have led the Panthers to the state playoffs since taking over. Must deal with sudden fame and prominence after remaining aloof both on and off the field for years. Lives alone with his grandmother, who suffers from senile dementia. He has a poor relationship with his father, who is career military and serving in Iraq. His father recently came home on leave and caused many conflicts with Matt, mainly because of his Father's dominating personality. It is suggested that his time in Iraq has changed him into the person Matt cannot get along with. Matt has been dating Julie Taylor, coach's daughter, at first in secret due to Matt's fear of what Coach Taylor would do if he found out, knowing that he doesn't approve. Recently, their relationship has stopped being hidden, and they now openly date, although Coach still does not seem happy about it and Matt is consistently nervous around him. Worried about how he will do against an upcoming opponent, he has started to take coaching from Jason Street. Unlike most of the other starters, Saracen is the only sophomore starter.

• Brian "Smash" Williams (Gaius Charles) — The running back of the Dillon Panthers. The most talented player on the team and is most likely to succeed at the college level. His desperation to get to the next level leads him to take drastic measures such as using steroids. Smash's drive to be at the top stems partially from a sizeable ego, but also because he sees a football career as a "meal ticket" and a means for providing for his family. His father is deceased and he lives with his mother and two sisters. Prior to championship game he is approached by Ray "Voodoo" Tatum to change schools. He dislocates his shoulder in the championship game but refuses to sit out, which led to him scoring the winning touchdown to win the Texas state championship.

• Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) — The fullback of the Dillon Panthers. Best friend to Jason Street, but was in love with his girlfriend while the two had an affair. Sullen and morose, he is the silent backbone of the Dillon Panthers football team. Appears to have suffered from alcoholism. Lives with his older brother Billy, as parents skipped out on them. Tim Riggins is one of the seniors on the team and hence will not be a member of the Panthers' team should the show be renewed for a second season.

• Landry Clarke (Jesse Plemons) - Best friend of Panthers quarterback Matt Saracen, but not on the football team, he often gives Matt advice and support, although his advice is often unhelpful. Front man of the Christian speed-metal band Crucifictorious. Recently, he was also Tim Riggins' personal literature tutor, at Mrs. Taylor's request. Landry provides many of the light-hearted comic moments on the show. Landry harbors a huge crush for Tyra, and has recently managed to form a friendship with her, despite her previous open dislike towards him.

Secondary Roles

• Buddy Garrity (Brad Leland) - Owner of a popular Dillon car dealership and father of Lyla Garrity. Buddy always tries to be involved with the Dillon Panthers football team, doing whatever he can to bring talent to the Panthers and resolve any problems with the players or their families. Recently hired Tyra Collette's mother, Angela, and engaged in an affair with her. This affair was made public after Angela was fired and, subsequently, has caused quite a stir around Dillon.

• Billy Riggins (Derek Phillips) — Brother to Tim Riggins, Billy is a semi-father figure to Tim acting as a peer most times but looking out for his interests like a father at others. Won a State Championship as a Dillon Panther during his own high school days.

• Mac MacGill (Blue Deckert) — Lead Offensive Coach for the Dillon Panthers. Had hoped to be tapped for head coach position that went to Coach Taylor. Grew up with a racist father, has admitted to inadvertently allowing some of that to seep into his own psyche. Mac was almost forced to resign after inadvertently using a racial slur to describe athletic abilities.

• Lorraine “Grandma” Saracen (Louanne Stephens) — Grandmother to Matt Saracen, she often requires special care from Matt. She shows signs of early Alzheimer’s disease.

• Corrina “Mama” Williams (Liz Mikel) — Mother to “Smash” Williams, she is very protective of all her children and worries particularly about the pressure Smash puts on himself. She often acts as the voice of reason to Smash when he's allowed his natural enthusiasm to rise to the point of being harmful.

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NBC Promo Art for Friday Night Lights.

• Herc (Kevin Rankin) — Athlete with the same injury as Jason Street, member of the national quad rugby team who has taken Street under his wing.

• Waverly Grady (Aasha Davis) — A reverend's daughter, waverly is the girlfriend to “Smash” Williams. She is very politically-oriented and tends to incite people to act on issues she feels are important. Suffers from bipolar disorder which recently manifested itself during the first season when she stopped taking her medication.

• Ray “Voodoo” Tatum (Aldis Hodge) — Panthers Quarterback for 2 weeks brought to town by Buddy Garrity to replace Jason Street. He only played in one game in which he was removed at half time for calling his own plays, a strategy which gave his opponents a disastrous interception. He was eventually ruled ineligible to play at Dillon and the Panthers were stripped of the game’s victory. Though originally said to have returned to his home of New Orleans, he ended up transferring within Texas and was the starting quarterback against the Panthers in the the Texas State Championship game. Scored 1 rushing TD, while passing for another TD, before eventually losing to the Panthers 27-26.

• Jackie Miller (Brooke Langton) - Single mom who lives next door to Tim Riggins, the two of them become close thanks to the cute antics of her 9-year-old son Bowe. A small fling developed between the two but was eventually ended by Brooke in order to preserve the friendship between Riggins and her son.

• Henry Saracen (Brent Smiga) — Father to Matt Saracen and a member of the armed services, he is stationed in Iraq and has indicated he will remain there until the military mission in Iraq is complete. His oppressive attitude, "military-style" fathering, and more concern for the military and Iraq over his son has caused severe conflict with Matt, who in an explosion of pent up anger, demanded that his father leave and go back to military life, letting him and his grandmother live in peace as they had before he came back. This situation brought Matt and Coach closer together.

• Angela Collette (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson) — Mother to Tyra Collette and mistress to Buddy Garrity for a short period of time, she has lived her life attached to a man and has only recently gotten her first job only to leave after Buddy wished to end the affair. She is extremely unsupportive of her daughter, Tyra, whom she believes will never make anything of herself because they live in a small town, and that Tyra is wasting her time trying to get into college. She is the reason Tyra is nearing explusion from High School, often dragging her away from studying to go drink or shop. Tyra is attemping to stay straight with her studies and not be dragged down by Angela.

• Bobby “Bull” Reyes (Walter Perez) — Dillon Panther’s star defensive player before being kicked off the team for assaulting a fellow student.

• Tony Dolia (Charon R. Arnold) — Panther Player #1, never shown outside of uniform but often highlighted during game play. He has been instrumental in several of the Panther’s on-field victories.

Episodes

Main article: List of Friday Night Lights episodes

Plot

Friday Night Lights is the story of the Dillon Panthers, their Coach Eric Taylor and the fictional city of Dillon, TX a town that lives and dies with every game their Panthers play. It is not a “sports show” in that the individual episodes tend to revolve around the personal lives of the Coach and his players and not around the actual playing of Football. Upcoming games are treated more like ever present specters in the background, influencing events while not being the focus of them.

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Jason Street and Matt Saracen

Accordingly not every episode will show an actual game even though every game that is played by the Panthers is shown to some extent, often in cut scenes at the end of an episode.

The show puts special emphasis on dealing with social issues facing the various team members and their families. Episodes have addressed pertinent social issues such as infidelity, drug use, mental illness, racism, alcoholism and parental abandonment. For a complete list of episodes with summaries see the article entitled List of Friday Night Lights episodes

Season One

Main article: Friday Night Lights (season 1)

Season one revolves around two main events which both take place in the Pilot episode. The first of these events is Coach Eric Taylor ascending to the position of head coach of the Dillon Panthers. The second is the injury of star Quarterback Jason Street which eventually left him paralyzed from the waist down and led second string Quarterback Matt Saracen becoming the new Quarterback, a position he neither wanted nor expected to have.

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Coach Taylor and Tim Riggins

These two events set off a chain reaction that leads the series through its first season, a season that largely revolved around a few basic themes.

The first of these themes is the overcoming of adversity. This is most evident in the juxtaposition of Matt Saracen’s struggle to live up to the team’s expectation and Jason Street’s struggle to come to terms with life as a paraplegic. Both struggle mightily against their respective challenges and their journeys largely parallel each other.

The second theme revolves around Coach Taylor and the dangers he faces in balancing the need to do the right thing with the need to appease a town whose hopes and dreams are inseparably intertwined with their high school football team. This cycle of Taylor struggling against expectaions to do the right thing repeats itself through the season as each season presents him with an easy solution and a right one.

The final theme of the show is one that touches each character in the show. That overarching theme is that even seemingly stereotypical people have unknown depth and once that depth is revealed people generally aren’t as different as they believe themselves to be. Most of the remaining characters were introduced as stereotypes of a small Texas town but as the season progressed each character's depth became evident and their imagined differences with each other became less and less pronounced. This theme is most evident in one of the season’s most volatile relationships, that of “Smash” Williams with Tim Riggins.

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Lyla Garrity and Tyra Collette

Williams is a driven, obviously college bound, athlete with a good family while Riggins is an unfocused alcoholic with absentee parents and no prospects beyond high school. When the season opens both these characters despise each other but as it progresses they become more and more dependent on each other eventually forming a friendship. In doing so they realize that they aren't as different as they had once thought.

This theme is reflected in other characters as well as demonstrated by the friction between “good girl” Lyla Garrity and town vixen Tyra Collette. At odds from the very beginning of the season they find common ground as Lyla discovers her perfect life isn’t as perfect as she thought and Tyra discovers why someone would aspire to the life Lyla thought she had.

Production

Inspiration

Main article: Friday Night Lights (film)

Friday Night Lights the TV Show takes its inspiration from a book entitled “Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream” which was published in 1990. The book, written by H.G. “Buzz” Bissinger details the 1988 season of the Permian Panthers, a high school football team based out of Odessa, TX. The book itself is intended as a work of journalism and is assumed to be completely factual (though some citizens of Odessa dispute that fact). The characters in the book are not renamed and the book makes no attempt to conceal their identity.

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Connie Britton, Kyle Chandler and Aimee Teegarden.

The 1990 book was followed up with a film in 2004 starring Billy Bob Thorton and Directed by Bissinger’s second cousin Peter Berg. The film’s characters are again based on the real life residents of Odessa, TX circa 1988 and the film stays loyal to the book itself in most ways.

Conception

Berg, who directed the 2004 movie, filmed the TV show's Austin, TX-based pilot in February 2006. Unlike the film, the show's pilot does not star Odessa's fabled Permian High School football team but instead uses that story for inspiration in creating a new, entirely fictional, cast of characters.

Still much of the work that went in to the Pilot’s creation was a duplication of work that was done on the movie and it is clear that Berg made a conscious choice to carry over many of the elements from the 2004 film . These choices include casting Connie Britton and Brad Leland in similar roles and using the songs by Explosions in the Sky, a band that wrote most of the film's soundtrack.

The pilot itself owes a lot to its Texas heritage and goes out of its way to pay homage to Texas football. One example is in the opening of the Pilot where a caller on the fictional “Panther Radio” compares Kyle Chandler’s coach Taylor to Texas Longhorn coach Mack Brown, who ironically makes a guest appearance in the Pilot along with Westlake High School coach Derek Long .

Football scenes for the pilot were filmed at Pflugerville High School's Kuempel Stadium and at RRISD Complex. The Dillon Panther uniforms were based heavily on the uniforms of the real life Pflugerville Panthers. .

Performances

The show’s producers decided at the outset to allow their performers leeway in what they say and do on the show. Though scripted like any hour long television drama performers are given great leeway in the delivery of their lines and the blocking of each scene. If actors feel that something is not true to their character or that a mode of delivery doesn’t work they are free to change it provided they still hit the vital plot points.

The freedom that producers have extended to the performers is complemented by the fact that the show is taped without rehearsal and without extensive blocking. Camera operators on the show are trained to follow the actors rather than actors standing in one place and having cameras fixed around them. This allows performers to not only feel free to make changes but to feel safe in making those changes because the infrastructure will work around them.

Executive Producer Jeffrey Reiner described this method as “no rehearsal, no blocking, just three cameras and we shoot”.

Working in this fashion has had a profound influence on everyone involved with the show with series star Kyle Chandler going so far as to say “When I look back at my life, I'm going to say, "Wow, [executive producer] Peter Berg really changed my life."” Executive Producer and Head Writer Jason Katims echoes this sentiment saying “When I first came on [the ‘FNL’] set, I thought, it’s interesting — this is what I imagined filmmaking would be, before I saw what filmmaking was”

Filming

Friday Night Lights is filmed in and around Austin, Texas and is unusual in its use of actual locations as opposed to prefabricated stage sets. The show uses real locations in and around Austin exclusively and has no sound stage where filming is done. This, along with the production team using hundreds of locals as extras, gives the series a uniquely authentic look.

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Taylor Kitsch, Gaius Charles, Kyle Chandler, Scott Porter, Minka Kelly and Zach Gilford

The drive towards authenticity continues in the show’s documentary style filming technique which employs three cameras for each shoot and shoots entire scenes in one take. This differs from most productions in that most productions will film scenes from each angle repeating an average scene several times and readjusting lighting to accommodate each shot. By filming a scene all at once the producers have tried to create an environment for the actors that is more organic and allows for the best performances.

This desire for authenticity in the production extends to the football games as well with the series making heavy use of the uniforms, cheerleaders, fans, and the stadium of the real life Pflugerville Panthers. Producers even go so far as to tape Pflugerville games and use it as game footage in the show. Added to that are real life University of Southern California football announcers Peter Arbogast and Paul McDonald who provide off-screen commentary during the football game sequences.

Aside from the Austin, TX based filming site there are offices located in Santa Monica, California in which all the writing and editing is done.

It has been reported that filming for a second season, should there be one, may be moved to another location to save on cost. The series represents roughly $33 million dollars a year in revenue for the area in which its filmed and states such as Louisiana and New Mexico have been aggressive in courting the production company. Texas itself has been said to be considering legislation that would allow them to match the offers of other states and the production company has stated a preference for the Austin area where it currently films.

Marketing

Initial marketing of the show was targeted at the youth market and focused heavily on the football element. NBC teamed with social networking site Bebo.com to create a site that allowed students to upload video and photos as well as create blogs about their local football teams. Students who participated were eligible for one of ten $5,000 scholarships. The focus of this promotion was a deal that would provide NBC and the show promotion on Bebo’s network of youth oriented sites including Piczo, hi5, Tickle, Ringo and FastWeb.

Promotional Website with Toyota.

To compliment this promotion NBC sent out “School Spirit” kits to 1,000 high schools around the country. These kits included posters, pop-poms, mini-footballs and disposable cameras all bearing the show’s log. The kits also contained copies of the show’s Pilot episode on DVD.

In addition to the Bebo.com partnership NBC paired with Toyota to create what they called the “Hometown Sweepstakes” in which students could earn cash grants of up to $50,000 for their school’s athletic program. This contest was open to high school students age 14 to 18 and was designed to draw people to the show’s official web site where they could download AOL Instant Messenger Icons, screensavers, and desktop wallpaper from the show. In addition, students that registered could download free movie theatre passes to special early screenings of the show’s Pilot episode. These movie theatre screenings took place in 50 cities nationwide and ran until a week before the show premiered on NBC.

This early strategy caused several marketing problems for the long term the most notable of which is the lack of women viewers. The early marketing campaign created an audience of almost exclusively young men and all but repelled women with its football heavy slant. This in turn deprived the show of a large audience who would enjoy the more character-driven soap elements.

Given this dilemma NBC chose to aggressively switch course and pursue the female demographic in the later part of the season. The network designed a strategy based around accentuating the personal elements of the show even going so far as to rechristen the show with the tagline “It’s about life”. NBC Marketing President Vince Manze stresses that their goal was to let people know it was not just about football but about family and relationships as well.

The network even chose to once again take their case to movie theatres by running 30 second spots featuring both cast members and fans being interviewed about the show.

Distribution

Online Episodes

NBC has been aggressive in its online promotion of Friday Night Lights. Streaming videos such as cast interviews and full episode from the previous week have been available on NBC.com since the series’ inception and in December of 2006 NBC expanded this selection to include every episode of the season. The move to offer every episode was only made for a few select shows and represents a marketing push on NBC's part. Beyond NBC.com it was announced on March 14, 2007 that the show would be part of an expanded lineup available via MobiTV .

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Cover Art from iTunes store.

In addition to the free ad-support offerings every episode of Friday Night Lights became available for download on the iTunes Store on February 10, 2007 for $1.99 per episode. As a special promotion the pilot was initially offered as a free download.

Bravo Repeats

In an attempt to bolster series ratings NBC repositioned reruns of the show to air on its sister network Bravo. The reruns aired for the weeks leading up to the Season one finale on NBC and were aired on a schedule of one hour every Friday and then three hours every Saturday.

Bravo is known to have an audience that is upscale and largely female which is in line with NBC President Kevin Reilly’s new strategy for selling the show. When questioned about this strategy he admitted to regrets over initially marketing the show incorrectly saying “It’s been so clear to me that [the marketing for] the show ended up confusing people in terms of what [the public thought] it was supposed to be”. He goes on to say that he feels the show is, at its core, a “women’s show” and that his wish is that the marketing had reflected that to a greater extent.

NBC has used this method of ratings-bolstering with limited success in the past, most notably during the ratings challenged final season of the West Wing.

Deleted Scenes

As part of their online push for the show NBC has made the rare move of publishing deleted scenes from each individual episode on their web site. Normally, deleted scenes are held until for an eventual DVD release but NBC/Universal has chosen to make them viewable online for a few of the shows that they produce.

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Original Promo Art on NBC Website

These scenes are note worthy in that they are almost always scenes where the information revealed in them is given later in the episode or series so they can be easily jettisoned. An example of this is a scene from the episode entitled "I Think We Should Have Sex" in which it is established that the character of Walt Riggins has resumed living in the same house as his son Tim. The scene, while providing interesting exposition on the relationship, serves only to establish a living arrangement which is made evident in subsequent scenes (which were aired).

That said, the exposition given in a deleted scene can often change the intent of material that aired such as in a deleted scene from the episode "Blinders". In the episode that aired the character of Tim Riggins gives some prejudicial advice in regards to racial tension that is developing on the team. Only in the deleted scenes is it revealed that this advice was actually taken verbatim from advice his father had given to him and not necessarily what the character would have done had he not been trying to emulate his father.

DVD Release

A DVD release of the first season is planned for the Summer of 2007 .

Public Reaction

Critical Reception

The series has met with overwhelming critical acclaim from the very beginning with Virginia Heffernan of the New York Times saying "this new drama about high school football could be great — and not just television great, but great in the way of a poem or painting..." a sentiment that was echoed by the Washington post who called the pilot "[e]xtraordinary in just about every conceivable way." Positive reviews also came in from USA Today, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Arizona Republic, and the Boston Globe.

Praise for the pilot has even come from international sources with The Guardian's Jonathan Bernstien calling the pilot "accomplished and engaging" and the Metro awarding it 4 out of 5 stars..

Young members of the Friday Night Lights cast

Praise for the show has continued throughout its inaugural season with many online journalists using the frequency of their medium to heap regular praise on the show. Matt Roush of TV Guide has dedicated several of his “Roush Dispatch” columns to the show calling the last episodes of season one “terrifically entertaining” while Zap2it.com's "TVGal" has gone so far as to ask her readers to "promise to watch [the last 4 episodes of] Friday Night Lights". . Even gossip columnists have praised the show with Kristin of Eonline saying she "love[s] the bejeezus out of [the show]" and TV Guide's Michael Ausiello calling the season one finale "predictably flawless" .

Not every review has been a positive one though with negative reviews coming from the Los Angeles Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Texas Monthly magazine.

Fan Response

Friday Night Lights is a show that has enjoyed what NBC President Kevin Reilly dubs a “passionate and vocal [fanbase]”. This fan dedication has shown itself in everything from advertisers expressing their support for the show . to news outlets getting massive amounts of support mail after running positive pieces about the show..

It has also led to the creation of several websites dedicated specifically to the show. These include the general information site FNL-online.com as well as several sites dedicated specifically to securing a second season for the show. Sites with this goal in mind include fightforlights.com which has collected positive press clippings about the show, savefridaynightlights.com which has organized an online petition for its renewal, and a myspace page which includes video, audio and text about the show.

Awards

The series and its creators have received several awards over the course of the series. By far the most prestigious of these is the George Foster Peabody award for broadcasting excellence which was awarded to the show for its first season . In giving their reasoning for the honor the award committee said that “No dramatic series, broadcast or cable, is more grounded in contemporary American reality [than Friday Night Lights]"

The series also received accolades from the American Film Institute which named the show one of the ten best TV shows of the 2006-2007 season.

Also earning distinction is the Pilot’s editing crew of Conrad Gonzalez, Keith Henderson and Stephen Michael who were awarded an American Cinema Editors (or ACE) award for Best Editing on a One Hour Series for Commercial Television.

The show's writing staff was nominated for a Writer's Guild Award for Best New Series of 2007.

Television Ratings

U.S. Ratings

This is ratings information for the series. "Rating" is the estimated percentage of all televisions tuned to the show, and "share" is the percentage of all televisions in use that are tuned in. "Viewers" is the estimated number of actual people watching, in millions, while "ranking" is the approximate ranking of the show against all prime-time TV shows for the week.

Unless otherwise cited, the overnight rating and share information comes from Zap2It and viewer and ranking information comes from CalendarLive. The following week, the numbers are updated with the final Nielsen numbers from TVWeek.com.

#	Episode	Air Date	Timeslot (EST)	Season	Rating	Share	18–49	Viewers (m)	Rank (#)
1	"Pilot"	October 3, 2006	Tue. 8:00PM	2006–2007	4.7	8	2.7	7.17	# 59
2	"Eyes Wide Open"	October 10, 2006	Tue. 8:00PM	2006–2007	4.1	7	2.4	5.87	# 71
3	"Wind Sprints"	October 17, 2006	Tue. 8:00PM	2006–2007	4.2	7	2.7	6.55	# 62
4	"Who's Your Daddy"	October 24, 2006	Tue. 8:00PM	2006–2007	4.0	7	2.6	6.33	n/a
5	"Git 'Er Done"	October 30, 2006	Mon. 10:00PM **	2006–2007	5.3	9	3.5	8.26	# 52
6	"El Accidente"	November 7, 2006	Tue. 8:00PM	2006–2007	3.9	6	2.3	5.94	# 69
7	"Homecoming"	November 14, 2006	Tue. 8:00PM	2006–2007	3.5	5	2.3	5.48	# 73
8	"Crossing the Line"	November 28, 2006	Tue. 8:00PM	2006–2007	4.2	7	2.3	6.18	# 71
9	"Full Hearts"	December 5, 2006	Tue. 8:00PM	2006–2007	4.0	6	2.3	6.13	# 70
10	"It's Different For Girls"	December 12, 2006	Tue. 8:00PM	2006–2007	3.9	6	2.1	5.66	# 70
11	"Nevermind"	January 3, 2007	Wed. 8:00PM	2006–2007	4.4	7	2.3	6.41	# 62
12	"What To Do While You're Waiting"	January 10, 2007	Wed. 8:00PM	2006–2007	4.4	7	2.3	6.41	# 62
13	"Little Girl I Wanna Marry You"	January 24, 2007	Wed. 8:00PM	2006–2007	3.9	6	1.9	5.66	# 71
14	"Upping the Ante"	January 31, 2007	Wed. 8:00PM	2006–2007	4.5	7	2.5	6.73	# 54
15	"Blinders"	February 7, 2007	Wed. 8:00PM	2006–2007	4.4	7	2.4	6.41	# 68
16	"Black Eyes and Broken Hearts"	February 14, 2007	Wed. 8:00PM	2006–2007	4.8	8	2.5	7.43	# 58
17	"I Think We Should Have Sex"	February 21, 2007	Wed. 8:00PM ***	2006–2007	3.7	6	1.8	5.16	# 81
18	"Extended Families"	February 28, 2007	Wed. 8:00PM ***	2006–2007	3.6	6	1.8	5.07	# 83
19	"Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes"	March 21, 2007	Wed. 8:00PM	2006–2007	3.8	6	1.8	5.39	# 70
20	"Mud Bowl"	March 28, 2007	Wed. 8:00PM	2006–2007	3.9	7	2.1	5.68	# 65
21	"Best Laid Plans"	April 4, 2007	Wed. 8:00PM	2006–2007	3.7	6	1.9	5.33	# 70
22	"State"	April 11, 2007	Wed. 8:00PM	2006–2007	4.1	7	2.1	6.27	TBA

** - Special Monday night airing (temporarily taking Studio 60's timeslot).

*** - Episode aired opposite a Special Wednesday night episode of American Idol

International Ratings

According to the Media Guardian (a U.K. newspaper) the show's pilot was watched by a mere 26,000 viewers in the UK. This is attributed to the program airing on ITV4, the least popular ITV channel, and being aired opposite the Champions League Soccer Playoffs.

DVR ratings

On December 29, 2006 Nielsen Media Research reported the results of having, for the first time, monitored viewers who use a Digital Video Recorder to pre-record shows for later viewing. According to the Nielsen numbers, adding these viewers increased Friday Night Lights ratings by 7.5% overall. These ratings, called "live plus seven", include all viewers who use a DVR to record the show and then watch it within a week of its initial airing.

These numbers are up to some debate though with Medialife Magazine reporting the "live-plus-seven-day" rating for Friday Night Lights as 135 percent higher than its live rating in DVR homes.

Affluent Viewers

On March 5, 2007 Media Life Magazine reported that Friday Night Lights is one of the most popular shows among "affluent viewers". This was determined using a report from Magna Global who in turn used analysis done by Nielsen Media Research. Affluence in the study was determined by yearly income.

In the study, Friday Night Lights tied for the 11th most watched show by affluent viewers. According to the study viewers of the show make an average of $65,000 per year. .

International Broadcasters

Country	TV Network(s)	Series Premiere	Weekly Schedule
United States	NBC	October 3 2006	Tuesdays 8:00pm ET
United States	NBC	December 27 2006	Wednesdays 8:00pm ET
Canada	Global Television Network	October 3 2006 - December 4 2006 †	Wednesdays 8:00pm ET
United Kingdom	ITV4	February 21 2007	Wednesdays 8:00pm
Australia	Network Ten[1]
Philippines	ETC

† - Global Television has indefinitely pulled the series until a later date.

External links

• Official Site
• Friday Night Lights at IMDb
• Friday Night Lights Fansite