"Friday Night Lights" Renewed

As you may have read in an earlier post, NBC was about to renew their critically-acclaimed football drama "Friday Night Lights". The network has finally issued a formal statement announcing the pick-up for the back nine episodes, renewing the series for a full first season.

The news may come as a surprise to some, given the show's poor ratings performance. The series has averaged a little over 6 million viewers. But, the drama has also enjoyed very strong support from TV critics and there have even been some signs pointing to the its future potential.

"Friday Night Lights" sole Monday night airing scored over 8 million viewers and won the timeslot in a number of demos. Also, the show's ratings normally increase from the first to the second half hour.

And that is not too bad for a young drama facing ABC's juggernaut reality competition "Dancing with the Stars" and leading off an entire night of prime-time programming.