TV Guide's Matt Roush fielded a couple of questions and opined on the future of Friday Night Lights in his recent column. Have at it ...

Q: So explain this to me one more time: How is Friday Night Lights moving to DirecTV in Season Three (just until January or whenever) supposed to help ratings? Don't DirectTV customers already get NBC, in which case DirectTV customers have already been exposed to Friday Night Lights? And don't Nielsen ratings take satellite TV watchers into account? How much can 13 episodes really help in saving a show? And if the show was originally an NBC show, why doesn't NBC air it first and then DirectTV? I thought I understood everything that was going on with this scenario, but I guess not.

Plus, I heard Ben Silverman (the one who wasn't a fan of Friday Night Lights) is leaving or stepped down from NBC — is that just a rumor? Sorry for all the questions, but I began rewatching Season One of FNL last night and was reminded (because it's been so long since I last saw an episode) how good this show really is and how much I love it.

A: I'll concede this is an unusual situation, but the most important thing to keep in mind here is that this has nothing to do with improving ratings. That ship has sailed. Friday Night Lights is never going to be a breakout hit, no matter how ardently its fans and critics champion it. This is purely a survival mechanism to keep the show alive and available to the widest audience, even if only for 13 more episodes. And if it works, maybe we'll see more examples of this kind of partnership to keep struggling shows from dying too soon. The reasoning: Even for a cost-efficient production like this, NBC/Universal alone couldn't justify renewing the show without a partner, so in came the DirecTV deal, with the company figuring it would enhance their brand while also giving them a quality exclusive with an established (albeit small) fan base. DirecTV's condition was to have the exclusive window first. Sucks for non-subscribers, but still, isn't this better than no third season at all? For NBC's part, only a small percentage of its overall audience are DirecTV subscribers, and while I suppose it's possible that some of these episodes could be leaked online during the DirecTV run, there will still be enough fans who won't have had access to the episodes before NBC airs them for the network to let it run for minimal cost and with minimal risk on Fridays during the winter. As for Ben Silverman's fate at NBC: Rumors galore but rumors only. This fall's programming slate (still sight unseen, as I've griped about before) is his first true test, and until we see how these shows fare, everything else is just gossip for now.

Q: I've been a big fan of Friday Night Lights since it began airing, and I have never really understood why it didn't catch on. I live in Austin where the show is filmed and have seen several of the cast members here and there in town the last couple of weeks, and I notice the same thing every time: I am the only person who even knows that these people are famous! Just the other day, my wife and I were like a couple of groupies when we saw Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton leaving a movie together, and there was not a single person in the theater looking at them. I then thought about it, and despite living in Austin, which is not only the show's host city, but also a monster football town, I don't know a single person that even watches this show. I keep telling people about it, and it just doesn't pull them in. Do you see them drastically changing the format this coming season to try to get new viewers, or is this thing just a lame duck? I love the show and don't want them to up the ante even worse than last season's murder plot, but I don't see this thing lasting much longer unless they change it.

A: First off, I bet Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton are happy to be able to go out in public in Austin without being besieged. Kudos to the people of Austin, although it's a stretch to think the entire city is as immune to the show's (and cast's) charms and appeal as you let on. But there's no denying the frustration among the fan base that more people haven't fallen in love with the show. It has been a challenge to write about Friday Night Lights from the start. The idea of a show about high-school football doesn't appeal to some people, and then when you tell them that it's actually a realistic and moving look at small-town America and family life, it leads some people to think the show must be too "good for you" to actually be good. It doesn't pander (unlike certain political campaigns currently touting "small-town values"), it doesn't sugarcoat the way teens actually act and carry on, and it doesn't provide over-the-top wish-fulfillment escape like the various CW shows (Gossip Girl, 90210). So basically, it boils down to the fact that the show is a hard sell. This doesn't mean that Friday Night Lights is going to sensationalize itself to survive. The DirecTV deal allows the show to go its own way for at least one more season, let's hope without melodramatic contrivances like last season's murder and cover-up plot. For this we should be grateful.

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.