Septemberbaby

ABCFamily only aired it for about 3 weeks, and then pulled it.
Hopefully, ESPN will stick with it and do what they say they're going to do: air the entire series:

ESPN Classic turns on "Friday Night Lights"

By Brent Lang | Reuters – 2 hrs 34 mins ago


By Brent Lang
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap) - "Friday Night Lights" may be wrapping up its critically acclaimed run on NBC and DirecTV on July 12, but the show about Texas football will live on courtesy of ESPN.
ESPN will air the entire series with episodes set to premiere on the same day the show goes off the air. Episodes one and two from season 1 will air back-to-back in primetime on ESPN at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. EDT.
The ESPN family will flood the zone with "Friday Night Lights" coverage, offering up a season 1 marathon on July 14 and 15 on ESPN Classic. Though the show will premiere on ESPN, sister network ESPN Classic and will become the series' home starting on July 21. It will air every Thursday night at 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. EDT.
ESPN Classic runs mostly sports movies, documentaries and reruns of historic games and events.
"We were attracted to it because the quality of the show is so strong and it has such a passionate and loyal following," Connor Schell, vice president and executive producer, ESPN Films and ESPN Classic, told TheWrap. "It's just incredible long-form storytelling in and around sports."
To help drum up enthusiasm for the show's new home, sports columnist Bill Simmons' ESPN-owned site, Grantland.com, will publish an oral history of the series told through the words of the entire cast and crew.
"Lights," a Peabody- and Emmy-winning series, was a big hit with critics but struggled in the ratings throughout its run. It managed to avoid cancellation after NBC brass struck a deal with DirecTV in 2008, in which the subscription satellite company got rights to broadcast the show first, in exchange for subsidizing its production costs.
"Friday Night Lights" is based on Buzz Bissinger's best-selling book and the 2004 film of the same name.
"Buzz Bissinger's book is one of the seminal sports books written in the last several decades," Schell told TheWrap. "It's an incredible book about American society told through football."
In addition to ESPN Classic, the Longhorn Network, the ESPN owned and operated network dedicated to Texas athletics, will also air the entire five seasons of "Friday Night Lights" after it launches in August.

Geofferson

Sweet I wouldn't mind watching the first season again...feels like a lifetime ago.

SteveA

I wondered why ABC-Family pulled FNL from its lineup. It seemed like an obvious fit. A soap with teenagers acting out and struggling to come of age, parents who have their own challenges but try to do the right thing. A (much, much) more intelligent version of "Secret Life of the American Teenager" and "Make it or Break It." Was it too intelligent for the ABC-Family audience, or was it because ABC-Family ran it five days a week, and people weren't ready to invest that much time in what is basically a continuing series?

I hope it fares better on ESPN and ESPN classic, but I'm not sure the audience there is the right fit either. No matter what, it's a wonderful show that deserves a much larger audience than it's received so far.

writer106

I heard ABC Family wasn't satisfied with the ratings.

I think it will do better on ESPN Classic. Last night ESPN aired the first two episodes of season 1 to promote the premiere on ESPN Classic.