Dolphin Talent’s Acting + Industry Guide

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a slight, ok maybe major, obsession with the TV show Friday Night Lights. I could go on and on about the production quality, the story lines (although I will skip season 2 in my discussions as I wasn’t a huge fan), and the cast of the show, and believe me I have, but what I find really interesting is the production deals that have occurred to keep the show alive.

Friday Night Lights has long been a critic’s favorite, and has extremely loyal fans, but doesn’t have a large number of those fans that tune in at its regularly scheduled airdate. In its first two season NBC saw remarkable numbers in online viewing and DVRing of the show, but didn’t see great viewership numbers when it aired on TV.  While it could be said that the show never lucked out in getting a good time slot (why would you air a show about football on a Friday night when everyone who would be interested in High School Football is most likely out watching their local high school team?), or that the show had misguided marketing (aiming the show towards 16-25 males when the show is more of a drama than just a sports show), or finally that bebo just never took off the way that facebook or myspace did thus not reaching as many people who frequent social networks as one of the other two networks would have, it did get lucky in one department.

After fans sent mini footballs to NBC and created a “save FNL”(Friday Night Lights) facebook page, the fans and the show, got an inventive break. NBC and the creators of the show Imagine and Film 44 reached out to other networks to see about a production partnership. A deal was reached with Direct TV. For the third season, Direct TV paid for half of the production costs for producing a 13 episode season of FNL, in return Direct TV got the run rights to the series on it’s 101 network. The outcome was so successful for Direct TV that they agreed to an additional 2 seasons for a total of 26 episodes thus saving the show. What makes this deal so unique is that the studio, NBC, made a deal with a TV provider, not another network, thus creating a win win for all involved. NBC was able to keep its little watched fan favorite and Direct TV was able to offer its subscribers exclusive content before they would otherwise be able to view it. And really the champion of this deal is the fans, because we got 3 seasons out of the deal thus allowing us to find out what happens to the members of the Dillon Panthers and whether or not clear eyes and full hearts really means you can’t lose.

For those who are fans: the Season 4 promo for Direct TV’s 101 network, enjoy!

-Megan