NBC Universal and DIRECTV have extended their innovative and multi-platform partnership from last year to produce 26 episodes that would launch the fourth and fifth seasons of the critically acclaimed drama series, "Friday Night Lights." The series would air first on DIRECTV and then subsequently on NBC with 13 episodes each during the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons. DIRECTV would have exclusive rights to the 13 new episodes for each of the series' fourth and fifth seasons on DIRECTV's entertainment channel "The 101 Network."
Last year's arrangement provided for 13 new episodes to be produced. Specific broadcast dates for the new installments on both NBC and DIRECTV will be announced later.
The announcements were made by Ben Silverman, Co-Chairman, NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, and Marc Graboff, Co-Chairman, NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios, and Eric Shanks, Executive Vice President of Entertainment for DIRECTV.
"We're proud that a deal for the renewal of 'Friday Night Lights' has been reached," said Silverman. "It is one of the best shows in the history of television and we've worked hard to keep it alive for future seasons. NBC Universal has been at the forefront of creative deals such as these, which ultimately benefit audiences, critics and advertisers alike."
Expanding on the hit feature film and best-selling book "Friday Night Lights," the award-winning "Friday Night Lights" centers on life in Dillon, Texas, where high school football brings the community together -- and the drama of small town life threatens to tear it apart.
Hailed as one of the Top-10 shows by numerous publications such as Time magazine, Entertainment Weekly and the New York Times, "Friday Night Lights" also has been honored two years in a row (2006/2007) as an American Film Institute (AFI) Television Program of the Year, received the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award in 2006 and won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series in 2007.
Source: NBC
