Feel like getting involved?

[proggrrl]

I've been chattering with friends on LJ since Friday, and reading lots of stuff this week, warning that February 8th's episode of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS was possibly the last ever.  *gasp*  For those of you who are interested, I've done a bit more digging and wanted to share:

There are Facebook and Myspace communities dedicated to a fan 'save the show' campaign.  There is also this website, still under construction as of Sunday morning Feb 10.  The Facebook comm posted these great Save Our Show postcards for download, which you can mail in to NBC. 

Best Week Ever.tv has a Dillon Panthers Booster Club.  They are hosting a Save The Show petition, and encouraging fans to send in light bulbs or Clear Eyes to NBC.

Here are some pro TV writer opinions on the fate of this show:

Radar talked with NBC prez Ben Silverman recently - and WE ARE NOT AMUSED.

EW.com's Hollywood Insider blog wrote this on Thursday:

NBC has yet to decide whether to order any more episodes of Friday Night Lights this season but that may not mean the end of the critically-adored drama. A source close to the series confirmed that Universal is considering whether to shop the Kyle Chandler starrer to another network rather than cancel it outright. The source cautioned, however, that NBC hasn't closed the door on the show just yet. In fact, one scenario making the rounds is a shared window for FNL with one of NBC's sister cable networks. While struggling in the ratings (FNL has only attracted an average 6.1 million viewers this season and typically finishes third in its timeslot), the show is a huge favorite among TV critics and even beloved by many executives at competing networks because of its multi-generational themes. The drama has also netted an Emmy for casting and a Peabody Award.

FNL has already produced 15 episodes for this season, the last of which will air Feb. 8. Should the writers' strike end by Feb. 15, the show's writers could complete the final arc of the season in five or six episodes if NBC gives it the greenlight, according to executive producer Jason Katims. As of right now, Katims has no plans to write the final episode as a series finale. "I would do it as a cliffhanger and leave things open-ended unless of course we were told that the show was ending," he says. "But I doubt that would be the case because if they bring the show back to do more episodes this season, they’re also going to be hoping that the show returns for a third season."

TV Guide - who's entire staff has been 100% in love with this show since its inception, bless their hearts, had many things to say:

Ausiello says ratings were no better for this ep than usual.  He doesn't sound very hopeful, although he does lay out some other possibilities including moving the show to another NBCU station like USA or ESPN.

Matt Roush's Q&A with fans included this info:
As for Friday Night Lights finishing out the season? It's not likely. As a number of people wrote in to point out, the second-season DVD with 15 episodes already has a market date of April, which is a pretty clear signal that what we've seen is what we'll get. This isn't a huge surprise. For economic reasons, the shows most likely to resume production when the strike is finally over are the big hits, not marginal shows or, in other cases, freshman series that have already completed most of their initial order. (The back-nine pickups turned out to be mostly symbolic and should be seen as a positive indicator for renewal, nothing more.) All of this will be decided on a case-by-case basis once the dust settles.

Then there is E!Online's Watch With Kristin.  Kristin is as droolingly-fanatically-enslaved to this show as I am.  Impressive!  Here's her latest plea:

You may be asking, "If this show is so good, why is it in danger of getting the boot?" Well, fans of this series know that Friday Night Lights is one of the best-written and best-acted productions ever to grace the small screen; however, due to a lack of support from the Peacock network (these quotes from NBC president Ben Silverman will make you shudder) and nightmare time slots (first against American Idol and now in the kiss-of-death slot on Fridays), this series has yet to garner the massive audience it so richly deserves.

(Further evidence of crap timeslot: According to Nielsen reports, Friday Night Lights scored the third-biggest jump of all prime-time series in its "live" audience vs. DVR playback within a week: about 38 percent. The fans just aren't home on Friday nights.)

So where do things stand? Reps for NBC Universal Television confirm that while the original order for the current FNL season was for 22 episodes, and they have only shot 15, the future of the series has yet to be determined. "The first question is whether they will finish out the seven episodes of this season," says a studio rep. "Which will be decided after we know when the strike will end. And then the second question is whether they will get picked up for a third season, which we will find out in May."

Other Peacock-net-savvy insiders are saying more alarming things—spanning from "I hear it definitely won't be back this season" to "I hear it definitely won't be back at all."

We say, nonsense! Even if the worst-case-scenario were true, Lazarus was raised from the dead, CBS saved Jericho, and Family Guy found a second life, too. So, we're keeping hope alive, and here's what you can do...

Three Easy Steps to FNL Addiction/Salvation

1. Watch the Friday Night Lights Finale Tomorrow Night at 9 p.m. on NBC:  You don't have to know anything in advance. This is not Lost; there's no complicated mythology to learn. If you've ever been a person, known a person or wondered about becoming a person, you'll get Friday Night Lights.

2. Watch Other Episodes:  They are available on nbc.com's Episode Rewind or in the season-one DVD (a ridiculous $18.99 on Amazon.com for 22 episodes), and every single click and purchase counts. You don't even have to watch in order. If you just want to watch one to test the water, I recommend the season-one eps "Full Hearts" (Matt & Julie's first date), "Black Eyes & Broken Hearts" (I dare you not to cry at the end!), "Blinders" (the powder puff game), "Mud Bowl" (it's what it sounds like)...Hell, just watch one, and then good luck not watching them all.

3. Spread the Word!  Email this article to everyone you know who needs help in seeing the Lights! Let them know you are concerned for their own well-being and that you will help them do whatever it takes to get on board with this amazing show. Then wear your Panthers number 7 jersey with pride, try to keep your drool over Taylor Kitsch to a minimum, and remember..."Clear Eyes. Full Hearts. Can't Cancel!"

Under the cut is the letter I'm mailing to Ben Frakking Silverman. 

---------------------------------------

Ben Silverman
Entertainment President of NBC
In care of NBC Entertainment
3000 W. Alameda Ave.
Burbank, CA 91523


Dear Mr. Silverman,

I have been reading in various places on the web (Radar, TV Guide, etc) that NBC is probably not going to renew FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, or even make the final 7 eps of season 2.

Please, I know the ratings aren't the greatest on this show, and its subject matter just isn't "awards bait" material.  But this show is so great, so heartfelt, and so rare.  It will live on for a very long time in DVD release well after it ends.  Can't you give us one more season?  It is a breath of fresh air on network TV these days.

Perhaps you and your staff already have noticed this - but this beloved 18-49 demo you all seem to cherish so much in TV?  We like this show.  A LOT.  Give it some more time.

Maybe you could move it to one of NBCU's cable stations? 

Best,
E----- -------
New York, NY
Member of 18-49 demo

---------------------------------------

CLEAR EYES, FULL HEARTS, CAN'T LOSE THIS SHOW WITHOUT A FIGHT.

With the WGA strike on the verge of ending, hopefully we'll hear more in the next week or two about FNL's prospects.  Especially since several high-profile TV writers at TV Guide, E!Online and EW keep asking the right questions!

Comments

[brokenmnemonic.livejournal.com]

I keep thinking about trying to get Friday Night Lights, because several people I know love it and say it's a very well written and acted show.

Can you guess what bugs me? I looked at your post, thought "hmm... $19, that's about £9.50." So, I went to amazon.co.uk, thinking it'd probably be around that price here. Then I went to DVDpricecheck.

If it's $19 in the US, why is it at least $30 everywhere here in Region 2? Oh, I know the answer... but it really does annoy me. Unfortunately, that means that it's going to stay on my maybe list for a while longer, because I don't earn enough yet to shop the way my ethics would dictate.

And don't even get me started on how I could import Jericho S1 from Australia right now and still have it cost less than the preorder version that has yet to be released here. Gah.

I hope it does get renewed - does it have anything in common with Jericho for reasons to get it renewed? I remember you saying that the people pushing to get Jericho back had some sort of numbers that really backed up their argument...

[proggrrl.livejournal.com]

If it's $19 in the US, why is it at least $30 everywhere here in Region 2? Oh, I know the answer...

Yeah, that sucks. The reverse version of that was BSG season 3 - only now coming out in the USA as you've heard I assume. No matter how technologically advanced the world market gets, there is no way around issues having to do with separate countries buying rights to shows, having different release windows, etc, etc. That's business.

I certainly don't buy everything I watch. I rent TV DVDs the same way I rent films. When I decided to catch up with FNL about 1/3 of the way through S1, I was able to catch up via the free online stream at NBC.com - but you probably can't do that, can you? And say an American friend of yours wanted to embed some Hulu links of the show for you. You probably couldn't watch that either, because Hulu is also locked down by territory rights.

Although I'm confused - why wouldn't NBC allow int'l viewers to stream the show? Seems silly to me since they're trying to build an audience.

A lot of this, more than we often consider, comes back to the big picture: TV stations get a lions share of income from broadcast ratings. Even though they are now counting DVR (those "plus 3" and "plus 7" ratings), they still don't seem to care as much about DVD and paid DL income.

We are getting there slowly though. Have faith. iTunes' recent addition of movie rentals points the way.

All this said, I think the international rights issue will be the last and toughest challenge to global new media distribution. We may have to wait quite a while for that to get sorted.

Can you rent the FNL dvds?

[brokenmnemonic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that sucks. The reverse version of that was BSG season 3 - only now coming out in the USA as you've heard I assume.
Aye... but then the UK DVDs have basically nothing by way of special features, whereas the US version of the DVDs is arriving later but with a lot more by way of features, and at a dramatically reduced price. I ended up ording FNL S1 after all, although I was particularly tickled with the warning that it was in a different region coding to the I was ordering from, and might have "Region Coding Enchancement." Last night, the papers were carrying big articles on the next national scheme to cut down on net piracy, but I can't help feeling that the situation isn't going to change because the main incentive for a lot of people committing net piracy remains the same - inability to view the material at the same time as everyone else. I don't have much sympathy with those who download movies, ironically - for me, seeing a film has always been a case of pay to see it at the cinema or rent/buy it more cheaply later on, and I'm happy to wait for a film to roll around. With tv, it's different... and situations like the iTunes pricing model make it feel like it's often simply a case of extorting more money from people simply because they can pay.

No matter how technologically advanced the world market gets, there is no way around issues having to do with separate countries buying rights to shows, having different release windows, etc, etc. That's business.
Yup. Although, I have to say that the current industry mandate on copyright duration is more than a little insane... but then being British, I like to have greed kept discrete and behind closed doors, not front and centre ;)

I certainly don't buy everything I watch. I rent TV DVDs the same way I rent films.
I'm a little odd, here - I sometimes rent past seasons of things because a brother of mine can rent them for free for me, but in general I don't rent anything for myself. With tv, I'm likely to download a few episodes of something and if I like it, I'll buy the season. With films, I tend to wait until they're on special offer and buy them, or see them in the cinema if I really like them - the rental market isn't something I tend to dabble much with.

You probably couldn't watch that either, because Hulu is also locked down by territory rights.
Yup. Helps generate that warm second-class citizen feeling :P

Although I'm confused - why wouldn't NBC allow int'l viewers to stream the show? Seems silly to me since they're trying to build an audience.
Why do iTunes charge more for someone in the UK to download a digitial file than they charge someone in the US to download that same digital file?

And if there's no charge for people to download something in the US, why is everyone else around the world barred, particularly something intended to be advertising?

[brokenmnemonic.livejournal.com]

they still don't seem to care as much about DVD and paid DL income.
This makes me think they're entirely focussed on advertising revenue, with media revenue coming a distant second.

We are getting there slowly though. Have faith. iTunes' recent addition of movie rentals points the way.
Sanctuary is my preferred model - advertising free, produced largely online, and distributed around the world at the same quality for the same price via the internet. Not something I think that would've happened if they'd been affiliated to a network, but one reason I'm happy to pay Sanctuary for their work.

All this said, I think the international rights issue will be the last and toughest challenge to global new media distribution. We may have to wait quite a while for that to get sorted.
The feeling I get is that the big media companies are going to be battling the pirates for a very long time. I find the more intelligent pirates hard to argue with - as one said, "why if I buy a piece of music to listen too should I have to pay to replace it if the disc is broken, why should I have to pay to get it in another format so that I can listen to it on my iPod, and a third format to put it on my car stereo, and a fourth format to play it on my PC? Why should I now be asked to pay a charge each time I want to listen to that piece of music, which is the preferred studio model?" You could argue that the case is different if it's something genuinely new... but in a lot of cases we're talking about things that are accepted as old. My dad's converting all his LPs to mp3 to listen too; before that, he converted them to casette so that he could listen to them on the way to work. If he could do that with Bob Dylan's music released in the 60s, why should he now have to buy the same piece of music twice to be able to have the same functionality?

Can you rent the FNL dvds?
Believe it or not, I don't think FNL has even aired yet here. I asked Ben about it, and Blockbuster could order it in for me to rent, but I have to pay a stiff fee on top... more than the cost of importing it into the UK. It comes in under the £18 threshold for customs, so I've simply bought S1 from the US for half the price of buying it online in the UK. The next barrier will be when I find out whether they've got RCE encryption on the discs to try and stop me playing them...

[proggrrl.livejournal.com]

does it have anything in common with Jericho for reasons to get it renewed? I remember you saying that the people pushing to get Jericho back had some sort of numbers that really backed up their argument...

Unfortunately, JERICHO was pulling much better numbers from day one than FNL has. As Kristin from E! mentioned above, FNL has always had very unfortunate placement on NBC's schedule. CBS aired JERICHO in better slots. Take a look at this EW piece for more on that.

[brokenmnemonic.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link - that piece made sense. It does sound as if FNL is going to hit the same problem Studio 60 did - it may be generating critical acclaim, but the network may not want to carry a show that isn't deemed profitable simply for the good reputation it brings them. I can't help thinking that a certain number of loss leaders are always a good idea if they're generating good press, but I know what it's like arguing with the finance-orientated areas of business :P