Variety is reporting that the deal between NBC and DirecTV has officially been hashed out that will result in two more seasons of 13 episodes each (26 total episodes) of Friday Night Lights:
Deal calls for the Imagine TV/Universal Media Studios drama skein to continue through a fourth and fifth season of 13 episodes each. As they did this season, "Friday Night Light's" third, DirecTV will get the first shot at airing the segs commercial-free before they bow on NBC. The negotiations between the Peacock and DirecTV hit a roadblock last week but ultimately resumed and the agreement was reached today.
Stacey Oristano, Derek Phillips and Dana Wheeler-Nicholson
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That’s awesome for the FNL fans! How long until this turns into a ‘What about Chuck’ thread?! My bet is 10 minutes. Any takers?
What about Chuck?
30 seconds.
On a semi-serious note, I think it has nothing to do with any other NBC “bubble” show’s prospects.
Tricia Helfer is on Chuck tonight and those on the east coast will be able to find out if her character and Yvonne Strahovsky fight over Chuck in less than 45 minutes.
Chuck, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck!
This doesn’t have anything to do with Chuck’s prospect. FNL will air on NBC in the winter and on Fridays…pretty much as far away from Chuck as possible.
David, we know that but, we know how things are going lately, so rather than try to stem the tidal wave, we’re just riding it!
That’s very true. I am sooo looking forward to tonights episode! Tricia Helfer is awesome. They should bring back Jordana Brewster and Rachel Bilson and have themselves a Battle Royal. That would be the dream.
Seriously though, I can’t see why people aren’t watching this show. But then again I though the same about Arrested Development and 4 years on I still want more AD! Looking forward to the movie now though, they better not mess it up!
I’m (hopefully) going to beat Julia to the punch on this and say that this is a bad move for NBC.
All aboard to 5th place across the board!
I think it all really depends on how much they’re paying for it. It probably isn’t too bad a deal to pay half and fill the Friday night wasteland.
go 5th place go!
Sean it isn’t about the finances of the deal it’s the general lack of ambition and direction that the deal represents.
NBC is once again renewing a show that’s dead in the water, does anyone realistically expect FNL to produce better ratings next year or the year after? They’re renewing a show that’s being out performed by Terminator for God sakes!
I hope you guys are right and this doesn’t hurt Chuck. Long live Chuck!! 17 mins. until the show starts!!
Alex, maybe they’re hoping that the superb 3rd season gets recognized by the Emmys this year and this could increase its audience, not that it’ll ever become a powerhouse or anything, but when they have so much junk on their schedule it’s encouraging that at least they’re keeping their high quality shows.
Bob, my guess is that the alternative to FNL for that timeslot was either Dateline or something like Deal or No Deal. No chance that Chuck would have been put there.
I agree that the direction has been off during the Silverman era. But then it has tried going the other way with shows like ‘Studio 60′ and ‘Kings’ but that doesn’t seem to work either. At this point I think for them it is all about the finances.
If they didn’t renew shows that we’re failing we’d only have the office, 30 Rock and L&O SVU left. Everything else is either declining or ending. It sucks but it’s true, NBC are in damage limitation mode.
sean g., i have to disagree here. i think nbc is cutting off it’s nose to spite it’s face. by making this move they are saying that they are really only going to aggressively schedule 8 hours a week; M-Th 8 & 9. Leno was their one chance to move stuff around and try to be a player on fridays. instead they are trading short term (and what has to be small) profit for continuing and accelerating damage to fridays. well, perhaps its not that drastic, but i think its close. i mean FNL is barely scraping by as is. with continued audience erosion, what does NBC think it will pull next season? Chopping Block numbers? it’s already almost there! what about in season 5? Everybody Hates Chris is probably getting better ratings than what FNL will get by then! what are they thinking really?!
I don’t understand how they can do this and not do a similar deal for Lipstick Jungle?
Since I have no idea what DirecTV paid it’s hard to opine. I’d spin it like this (in very round numbers): $20M or more per season: a GREAT deal for NBC. $10M-$20M per season: still perhaps a very reasonable thing for NBC to do based on projections for ad revenue (at a 1.2 rating for adults 18-49), DVD sales and syndication revenue. Sure, Dateline and Deal or No Deal are much cheaper, but there aren’t any ancillary revenue streams. If it’s less than $10 million a year, NBC is perhaps very ambitious when it comes to ancillary revenue.
If Chuck does wind up getting canceled I predict a lot of “Please DirecTV, subsidize Chuck too!!”, but that’s the only way I see Chuck winding up on Friday nights…
That seems really risky to me. They must be getting a great deal with DirecTV because the show’s ratings are horrible.
well the 1.2 18-49 is over half of CBS’ rating so I think the numbers must be working in their favour overall. Does anyone know the dvd sales for previous FNL dvd boxsets?