NBC / Paul Drinkwater"It's not final, but it's close."
That's the latest I'm hearing on NBC's on-the-bubble, fan-favorite series Friday Night Lights—that the deal for season three is "nearly done" (a deal that would bring FNL to both NBC and DirecTV in the fall).
I'm also hearing that castmembers' agents and managers are being told it's looking "likely" that the show will come back this fall for...13 episodes.
Yes, it seems FNL may be on a probationary period for season three (awaiting pickup of the back nine episodes), but fear not! With the new eyeballs coming to the series via DirecTV, and the new attention to the show via the kickass fanpaigns to save it, surely the ratings will improve and FNL will get a full season. So if you ask me, this is all good news! Or rather, it will be good news...If they'd only finalize everything and announce it.
Perhaps it's just my wishful thinking, but what the hey, I'm gonna toss this out to the universe (ahem, Ben Silverman). It certainly would be a very good thing for an announcement on Friday Night Lights' pickup to come out today or tomorrow, since the cast will be hitting the Paley Television Festival tomorrow night, and that's the perfect opportunity to get some nice, happy, NBC-loving press and to celebrate with the fans.
(Speaking of, if you have any Q's for the FNL cast or producer Jason Katims, please email them to tvdiva@eonline.com! If you have a special message for Taylor Kitsch, get in line.)
Meanwhile, in other on-the-bubble news...
Fans of ABC's Men in Trees have launched a very cool campaign to save the series. They're raising funds to buy trees for families in third-world countries. I did a little digging and found the following info: 5,000 food trees can produce up to 50 million pounds of food for hungry people over the life span of the trees.
Each food tree costs $1 and is tax deductible. They are being planted through the nonprofit organization Trees for Life. A certificate of contribution is given to each donor and will be presented en masse to ABC's head honcho, Steve McPherson, at the conclusion of the campaign. For more details, Tree huggers can check out the Men In Trees message boards at abc.com.
And as for ABC's October Road, Bryan Greenberg and Geoff Stults just stepped onto our satellite radio show, Yo on E! (which you can check out on XM and Sirius), and when asked about the odds of the series getting picked up, Geoff said, "I'm going fifty-fifty."
Bryan added: "We’re probably not gonna know until May. But the thing is, with this show, it’s been such a roller coaster, ups and downs since the day we shot the pilot...It's par for the course, at this point."
In the meantime, if you'd like to support the series, Bryan suggested sending leaves to ABC: "Rake your leaves, send them in...bags of leaves." And Geoff suggested cash: "You guys can send me cash, and I’ll give it to ABC. Just put it in an envelope." Ha!Sound off with some show-saving fan love below! You never know who in the universe might be reading...