NBC Moves 'Friday Night Lights' to...Friday Nights! Why, It's Nothing Less Than Genius, I Tell You

So in the upfront announcement of its Fall 2007-2008 primetime schedule to the advertising community today, NBC disclosed that it is not only renewing the low-rated football-themed freshman drama "Friday Night Lights" to Friday nights -- it was either that or ship it to Wednesdays and rename it "Wednesday Night Lights" -- but is also slating a limited-run "Heroes" spinoff entitled "Heroes: Origins" for six weeks while the original takes some time off at midseason. It's a new approach to dealing with what has become public enemy number one in the network world: reruns.

Also noteworthy: there will be no new comedy series premiering this fall on NBC, the first time that's happened in nearly 30 years. However, the network is upping the seasonal episode allotment on "The Office" to 30 and "My Name is Earl" to 25, which speaks to the idea of cutting the potential risk wherever possible. Better to increase the episode count of a proven player than take a chance on six weeks of a newbie.

The clout of producer Dick Wolf is also on display with the hard-fought renewal -- for an 18th season -- of his "Law & Order," which reportedly had to radically trim back budget costs to justify the greenlight for a show very much on the bubble. Wolf is candid about wanting "Law" to tie or beat "Gunsmoke," at 20 seasons the longest-running primetime drama series in TV history. But it'll have to go at least two more seasons beyond '07-08 merely to pull even. "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" also comes back in originals this fall, though not to NBC but its Universal sister USA Network.

And of course, you no doubt already know about the fate of Aaron Sorkin's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." It returns May 24 to play out its full 22-episode complement but then that will be that. As has been said repeatedly, it's a matter of simple economics. The equation: Low Ratings + High Production Costs x 22 = Financial Armageddon. NBC, being in the business of profit rather than deficit, had no choice other than to cast it off. But it's an indicator of the respect accorded Sorkin that it completed production on the order despite the high cost and will air them all. Of course, it could also be contractually mandated.

Anyway, don't fret too much over this death. It was intriguing, well-written and nicely performed, but at the end of the day it's still only a television show. Our lives will go on almost as before. And Sorkin will be back, don't you worry.

Comments

[Christian Johnson]

"Friday Night Lights" on Friday...Genius?

Hmm...It's a show about high school football on Friday nights. Many of the people interested in the show go to watch, or watch on TV, Friday night football games. So putting a simulation on while a portion of your audience is watching the real thing is genius?

Somehow I think this will result in a loss of "real time" audience. Not necessarily too large an audience, but I would guess some. Especially of the "real time" and "same day DVR" audience.

But...that's just me.

[cadavra]

Yes, life will go on, but that still doesn't assuage the feeling that it was given up on too quickly. There were options: cut the budget further, keep it around as a mid-season replacement (does anyone honestly think any of the new shows will make it to Christmas?), or hustle it off to Bravo a la CI to USA. Fox foolishly cancelled BRISCO COUNTY, JR. after one season, and nearly 15 years later, not one show has done anywhere nearly as well in that gawd-awful Friday 8:00 slot.

[Joe Bua]

Okay, of all the potential viewers of Friday Night Lights, how many of them are actually gonna be at a high school football game on Friday nights? A few, and only for about 10 weeks of the year, if I remember correctly from high school.

BTW, on Long Island, we play the high school games on Saturday mornings.

As I said in this post ...

http://iamatvjunkie.typepad.com/i_am_a_tv_junkie_a_blog_f/2007/04/show_on_the_bub.html

... of course it should air Friday. TV has a tradition of naming shows for the nights they air, and not even though the word Friday here has nothing to do with that tradition, it's confusing. You either change the name of the show, eschewing all that good word of mouth from the movie, or you move it to Friday Nights.

As for me, I still won't watch it, but at least now I can look at the calendar and remember what day that show I don't watch is on.