While Friday Night Lights seemed to suffer less from last season's writers' strike than many other shows, it still faced the specter of cancellation due to low ratings. Due to an innovative agreement between NBC and DirectTV, though, FNL returned for a third season.Aired on DirectTV starting in January, Friday Night Lights returned to NBC January 16th with a return to its first season mix of realism, poignancy and, yes, football. After plot mishaps of last year that seemed to be trying to turn FNL into yet another teen melodrama, it's nice to see the show playing to its strengths again.
