Friday Night Lights
News (Page 3)

During the NBC session of this week's Television Critics Association press tour, entertainment president Angela Bromstad took to the microphone.

She addresssed the status of three Peacock shows: the scheduling of Chuck and Friday Night Lights; and the structuring of Southland. Here's what she had to say about each:

On the new focus of Southland: “[The show] tried to do too much in those [initial] six episodes, It became [too] serialized. It’s now going to focus on Regina King and Ben Mackenzie and those two sets of officers." (Note: this is evidenced by the new poster for the series, shown below)

On Chuck's mid-season premiere date: The show is “is on a great track creatively," but there are no plans to move up its midseason launch. However, there may be room for fresh episodes to “run over into the summer... those are discussions we will continue to have.”

On delaying season three of Friday Night Lights until the summer of 2010: “Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the ratings to justify putting it on the fall schedule.”

Plans for Adrianne Palicki to come back to Friday Night Lights this fall to give Tyra Collette some closure have hit a new snag, according to Entertainment Weekly.

"I'm actually going to be shooting [Red Dawn] during the fourth season, so I don't know if I'm going back," she said while promoting her upcoming thriller Legion.

"I know they want me to [come back]."

The actress confessed that the thought of leaving Friday Night Lights for good makes her "very sad, I had such a great time on that show. They're like my family."

There's always Season 5 - which is guaranteed to actually take place after the show's highly-unusual two-season pickup. The show returns on DirecTV this fall.

As one of the few original cast members set to star on the fourth season of Friday Night Lights full time, what's next for Taylor Kitsch's Tim Riggins on the show?

When E! suggested Riggins become an assistant coach for East Dillon's new rag tag football team, Friday Night Lights star Connie Britton replied enthusiastically:

"That's not a bad idea. They tried to do that with Scott Porter's character (Jason Street, in Season Two) so it would be funny if it was Tim Riggins doing it this time."

We also saw Riggins do some impromptu coaching during his short-lived suspension from the team (below), so maybe it's more of a natural fit than we might think.

What do you think? Should #33 help coach the team? On another Riggins note, rumor has it he does not stay faithful to Lyla while she's away at college. Shocked?

While no guest stars for Friday Night Lights' upcoming fourth season have been set yet, Connie Britton admitted she's already campaigning for a visit by her friend Ron Perlman, whom fans of FX's Sons of Anarchy know needs no introduction.

"It would be so fun if he came in and was some awful coach, a really hardass coach," Connie said in an interview with E!. "Of course, Ron is busy doing Sons of Anarchy."

Connie also said she would love to show up on Friday Night Lights executive producer Jason Katims' new NBC show Parenthood, but scheduling conflicts won't allow it.

Similarly, the outstanding actress who plays Tami Taylor said. "At some point they were talking to me about doing some stuff on Californication, which I would really love. It couldn't work out, scheduling-wise, but if it ever did, it would be fun."

While Friday Night Lights star Connie Britton recently said the series' two-season pickup would likely mean the end of the show in 2011, she now says, "You never know—if it does do really, really well, maybe they would go on for more seasons."

Either way, what do the next - and possible final - two seasons hold?

Peter Berg, who adapted the book and film of the same name for television, is directing the first episode, which will likely have a time jump similar to Season Two.

Said Connie Britton of the new season, "I bet they will do it from that three-month ending to the beginning of the new school season, which would be September."

And if a sixth season of Friday Night Lights isn't ordered after the fourth and fifth?

"Everybody is really embracing the idea of having two seasons and being able to be really specific with these arcs and know where we're going to end up," she said.

"That's exciting to be able to do that on a TV show. I really do feel like these two seasons are going to be really strong. I think it's going to be a lot of change."

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As we've previously reported, Zach Gilford (Matt Saracen) will not return as a series regular next season on Friday Night Lights. Nor will Minka Kelly (Lyla Garrity), following in the footsteps of Gaius Charles (Smash) and Scott Porter (Jason), who left town.

As for Zach, how long will he be around before bidding farewell?

Michael Ausiello of EW says about five episodes, but possibly more. That's not bad considering the whole season is 13, and it should give him ample time for an awesome goodbye story line.

We're gonna miss Matt, but he would want to leave Dillon.

Friday Night Lights' realism translates into its characters being written off the series when the time naturally comes for the youngsters to leave Dillon, Texas.

But might we see some old faces return later on?

Of his future with Friday Night Lights, Scott Porter, whose character Jason Street was a central component of Seasons 1 and 2 but left town last year, says:

"I may have a guest spot return to Dillon in Season 5. In the final episodes of the wrap-up season, we'll put a bow on everybody. There are definitely some ways to bring Jason Street back."

"If Tim Riggins gets in trouble, or if Riggins ends up getting married, then I'll come back for that. [Street's return] is probably going to be Riggins-related, although since I'm a football scout now, I could probably come down and look at some of the new kids at East Dillon."

Friday Night Lights has been picked up for two seasons, with the next beginning this fall on DirecTV. However, the stars have stated that those two will be the last.

For now, Scott Porter filmed a Fox pilot called Masterwork about international art theft. It was filmed on location in Europe, and Porter plays an FBI agent.

The Friday Night Lights cast is currently in flux, as usual. Who's still on it? Who's leaving? Who's in, but only for a farewell story arc a la Gaius Charles and Scott Porter?

Here's the scoop on the new season of Friday Night Lights, which returns in the fall on DirecTV for Season Four, which will then air on NBC beginning in January 2010.

EW says the following all-stars will be back as full-time cast members: Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Jesse Plemons, Taylor Kitsch, Aimee Teegarden, Jeremy Sumpter.

Meanwhile, these regulars for the first three seasons are moving up and moving on, but will be back for  farewell acts: Adrianne Palicki, Minka Kelly, and Zach Gilford.

The actress who plays Tami Taylor on Friday Night Lights is so incredible, she's able to play the role without being a wife or a mother in real life. Now that's acting!

The perpetually brilliant, Emmy-worthy Connie Britton recently sat down with EW to discuss some major Friday Night Lights spoilers for this season and beyond.

You can check out her full interview below, but the highlights are:

• "I'm pretty sure in the next two seasons there's a very strong possibility that Tami will have an affair with a student." Double gulp.
• Kyle Chandler, Taylor Kitsch, Aimee Teegarden and Jesse Plemons will be back. Minka Kelly and Adrienne Palicki? Unlikely.
• Friday Night Lights resumes filming in September ... ish.
• The series will end after the fifth season in 2011.

Here's Connie's interview ...

Now that Shonda Rhimes' political pilot, The Body Politic, has not been picked up by the CW (The Vampire Diaries, Melrose Place and The Beautiful Life won spots instead), does that mean Minka Kelly, is still leaving the current show she stars on, Friday Night Lights?

Unfortunately yes.

According to reports, Lyla Garrity is not returning to Dylan, Texas, as was the plan all along.

Friday Night Lights thrives on its realism, and that means folks leaving town, as we saw with the exits of full-time cast members Gaius Charles and Scott Porter.

Minka told E!, "I actually will probably be moving on. I think it would make more sense story-wise that I graduate and move on to college. I think I'll be moving away."

Here's hoping some lucky show lands the lovely Minka Kelly.

Luckily for fans of One Tree Hill, another star of the ill-fated Body Politic, Brian Austin Green, is rumored to be joining that show's cast as a full-time series regular.

If he can get over his case of cold feet, that is.