The most surprisingly thing about FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS isn’t that it doesn’t actually air on Friday Nights. Rather it’s the fact that this TV addict, who’s never actually watched a football game in its entirety, was riveted by the first two episodes from the moment the pilot kicked off.
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, based on the popular movie of the same name, revolves around the small rural town of Dillon, Texas, and its obsession with their local High School Football Team (the town literally shuts down on Fridays to attend the games). The show stars Kyle Chandler (GREY’S ANATOMY, KING KONG) as the team’s coach and features Connie Britton (SPIN CITY, 24) as his supporting wife. Taking a page from DEGRASSI’S playbook, the show has actually cast actors who refreshingly look like they could be in high school, including Scott Porter (ALL MY CHILDREN), Gaius Charles (BOOK OF DANIEL), Taylor Kitsch (KYLE XY), Zach Gilford (THE LAST WINTER) and Minka Kelly (WHAT I LIKE ABOUT YOU).
Of course, the big question is whether the television audience [especially women] will tune into a weekly show about football. “The show isn’t just a ‘football’ show. It’s a character driven series, with football as the backdrop.” Promises executive producer Peter Berg, “We’ll be dealing issues such as grade fixing, and the personal relationships between players. Issues that we would have loved to include in the movie, but we never had time for.”