I am pleased as punch to read that Friday Night Lights has been renewed. 26 episodes! Two more years of Coach and Mrs. Coach (and hopefully Landry)!

Is anyone else still watching? I know a lot of people were put off by a lot of season two, but season three was pretty damn great. In fact, I think I'll go set my TiVo to record the rest of the NBC re-airings right now.

If anyone still cares: thoughts about Emmy nominations!

( Blah blah, bitch complain, rinse repeat... )

Okay, okay, I need to be packing, but I'd be remiss if I didn't pass along this report from the Friday Night Lights Paley Festival session.

This is so sweet: ( And it's also a season two spoiler. )

And this cracked me up:

It didn't take much prompting, but, thanks to one fan's request, a super-game (and buff) Scott Porter stood up, walked to the front of the stage and reenacted his famous motorcycle hip thrust from Music & Lyrics. He even topped off his performance with a sassy little booty shake.

And Pop! went everyone's hearts, I'm sure.

Happily, talk of season three was filled with a lot of "when"s rather than "if"s. Sounds like an official announcement is coming fairly soon. Hooray!

Friday Night Lights! Third season! Probably!

This is great news to that small but passionate audience for the best TV series you're not watching. I'm told that Jeff Zucker, Marc Graboff and Ben Silverman had been searching for a way to renew the critically acclaimed but low-rated Friday Night Lights for a 3rd season in a way that would still make financial sense. The answer came in a deal with DirecTV, now owned by John Malone's Liberty Media. Clearly Malone is looking to distinguish DirecTV from its rivals on a content as well as price basis. "It's an innovative deal where NBC found a partner who will share costs and exhibition windows," an insider explained to me. So both NBC and DirecTV will be airing Friday Night Lights across multipurpose platforms.

Provided this really is happening, it's fabulous news. And now I turn my attention back to the Project Runway finale in a decidedly happier mood.

Two interesting pieces of TV news:

First, the specs on the Friday Night Lights season 2 DVD set. I'm so psyched to see the Paley festival footage, but not quite as excited as I am to hear the Jesse Plemons/Adrianne Palicki commentary. Tyra/Landry forever, y'all!

And second, the scoop on the characters in Joss's upcoming Dollhouse. I can so get behind the suggested casting of J. August Richards, Tom Lenk, and Gina Torres. But if I had to guess, I would say Eliza's the only Whedonverser we're going to see in a regular role. Too much repetition otherwise.

Tonight's final FNL-induced cry count: 3. God DAMN, I love this show. I...have nothing more eloquent to say than that.

Only one episode left now. If we don't get a season three, I'm going to be crushed. Dangerous territory, that, but the heartbreak will still have been worth it.

( Folks, can we talk about Friday Night Lights? )

And while I'm expressing unpopular opinions, may I add that I totally enjoyed every minute of The Office this week? Sure, I'll be glad when they're back to the more artful half hours, but this one hung together pretty darn well without resorting to anything too over-the-top to pad it out. ( A few quick spoilers for Launch Party within. )

So! New fall prime time schedule! Which, for me, looks like this:

Monday:

8:00-8:30, The CW -- Everybody Hates Chris (premieres 10/1)

9:00-10:00, NBC -- Heroes (9/24)

All the good buzz about Chuck made me seriously consider giving up Chris. But then I watched the pilot. I mean, I suppose it was amusing enough, but now I know for sure that I'm worn out on the underachieving geeky guy and successful hot girl thing. After the second series of shots of her in her underwear, I was pretty much done. Tichina Arnold alone is funnier than that entire hour, and she gets to leave her clothes on.

I might stay tuned to check out Aliens in America at 8:30, which has going for it both surprisingly good word of mouth and Scott Patterson. I think I miss you most of all, Luke.

I never got on the Heroes train last season; all of the hype had me sick of it before it ever even started. I regretted that as soon as they added Christopher Eccleston to the cast, and even moreso after the squee began to rise, nearly universally, from my flist. But by then, I was already too far behind, so I just waited for the DVD set to come out. ( Yeah, we devoured the whole thing over like, three days. )


Tuesday:

For the first time since I started watching first run Buffy back in 2001, I'm watching absolutely nothing. That's going to be weird. I guess I could give Reaper a try, but...eh.


Wednesday:

8:00-9:00, ABC -- Pushing Daisies (10/3)

9:00-10:00, NBC -- Bionic Woman (9/26)

Pushing Daisies is a maybe. I'm one of the few people who never really liked Wonderfalls -- the other Bryan Fuller show it keeps getting compared to -- and not for lack of trying. Hearing the word "twee" used over and over again to describe it isn't inspiring confidence, either. But I also keep hearing that it's the best new show of the fall, and, well, as I was just saying, ignoring that in the past has led me to miss out.

I admit I had high expectations for Bionic Woman, given that so much of the creative talent of Battlestar Galactica is behind it. ( Were they just too high, or does the pilot really suck as much as I think it does? )


Thursday:

9:00-9:30, NBC -- The Office (9/27)

10:00-11:00, Bravo -- Tim Gunn's Guide to Style

I was doing okay waiting for The Office to come back until I rewatched season three. Come oooooon next week!

30 Rock is a possible here. I watched a handful of episodes last year and just didn't connect with it like I was hoping to, but I'm about to give the first season another try on DVD. We'll see if it sticks this time.

I'm not nuts about this new Tim Gunn show, but it's helping to tide me over until Project Runway returns in November, which is all I ask of it.


Friday:

9:00-10:00, NBC -- Friday Night Lights (10/5)

It doesn't make me as flaily as it does others, but it's a darn good drama that made for quite the enjoyable DVD marathon. Hell, I'd watch this show even if it were just about the ironically-named Landry, but we get Tami and Coach and Matt and Matt's grandma and Tyra and Smash and Smash's mom and like twelve other people I like, too! I love that it's photographed better than most movies. I love the little stuff that gives me a twist in the gut, like ( these teensy spoilers ). Plus, it's just plain nice to see characters drink and have sex and just generally act like real live people minus the punitive "moralistic" plot twists straight out of after school specials, you know? Let's just hope it beats the odds and makes it all the way through its second season.


Sunday:

9:00-9:30, Fox -- Family Guy (9/23)

Hey, it makes me laugh out loud at least once an episode. Don't you judge me!

Additionally, providing my two teams don't go down the drain like they seem to be trying to, I'll also be squeezing in post-season baseball. And me and my computer, we have some happy Friday nights ahead of us that I hope will soon expand to Fridays and Wednesdays, too. Plus, there's The War, because nothing says fun like fifteen hours of death and destruction. But I think Ken Burns could make a riveting documentary series about anything, so I'll be there.

Am two episodes into Friday Night Lights on DVD. Still hate football, but may already have wee crush on Matt Saracen nonetheless. Thinking that timing all five at home discs' return to Netflix on Monday so I could immediately have the whole season at my disposal so as to not suffer potential anguish over (postal) holiday weekend if I loved it like some of you thought I would was probably a good move. But we'll see.

Carry on. ::cues next episode::