Why Friday Night Lights Ended After Five Seasons

Why Friday Night Lights Ended After Five Seasons

Despite struggling ratings, Friday Night Lights managed to stay on the air for five seasons before it was eventually canceled.

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Why Friday Night Lights Ended After Five Seasons

Friday Night Lights ended after its five-year run on NBC. The show gained a strong cult following with a small segment of fans over the course of those five seasons. The show’s fanbase was passionate enough to keep the show going for a little while, but the show ultimately called it quits in 2011. Here’s why Friday Night Lights was canceled after five seasons.

Based on the book and movie of the same name, Friday Night Lights follows the football-obsessed town of Dillon, Texas. The series was specifically focused on the lives of the team and their coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler). Coach Taylor moved his family to Dillon in order to coach the nationally-recognized football team. Taylor and the team had to live up to the expectations that the town had for them, all while dealing with the drama and struggles in their own lives.

Why Friday Night Lights Ended After Five Seasons

Friday Night Lights gained critical acclaim right off the bat, but the show wasn’t able to reach nearly enough fans to sustain it. The show struggled with gaining enough viewers as early as season 1. Because of that, cancellation was a looming threat during the second season of the show. Poor ratings would ultimately lead to the show’s cancellation after the fifth season, but the show’s loyal fan base is a large reason that it lasted as long as it did.

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Friday Night Lights’ fans rallied around the show for multiple renewal campaigns. NBC took their cries seriously but came up with an unusual strategy to keep the show running. For Friday Night Lights’ third season, NBC made a deal with DirecTV to co-finance the show. New episodes aired on DirecTV’s 101 Network and would subsequently release on NBC a few months later. The first season with this new hybrid schedule was Friday Night Lights’ most successful season, which earned it a two-season renewal. But unfortunately, ratings for seasons 4 and 5 continued on a downward trajectory. So after years of being on the bubble, NBC finally canceled Friday Night Lights once and for all. While the show never fared well while it was airing live, it eventually found new life on streaming services.

While cancellation often loomed over Friday Night Lights, the show had a unique opportunity that so few do. Many shows will come and go, receiving a cult following after the fact if they are lucky. Friday Night Lights gained a rabid fan base from the get-go, and NBC took that seriously. Networks so rarely listen to the desires of fans above ratings. Fans have increasingly taken to social media in recent years to voice their grievances over their favorite shows being canceled. In the case of shows like Brooklyn 99, those campaigns sometimes go viral and catch the eye of A-List stars. That has lead to other networks, or more often, streaming networks like Netflix, swooping in to pick up the series. The story of the Friday Night Lights’ fanbase likely inspired campaigns such as these ones. So while Friday Night Lights may have ended in cancellation, it very well inspired successful strategies to save future shows.

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Link Source : https://www.cbr.com/why-friday-night-flights-ended-5-seasons/

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