Paley Fest 2008: Friday Night Lights

Written by: Tony Lazlo, CC2K Staff Writer

Fans of NBC's beloved and beleaguered drama Friday Night Lights will know the show's fate within two or three weeks, according to executive producer Jason Katims, speaking at the 2008 Paley Festival in Los Angeles last night.

Here's the scoop on Friday Night Light's future:

• There have been rumors about a joint deal between NBC and DirectTV to pick up the show's third season. That may happen, but other parties have expressed interest in the show, too. In any event, you won't need DirectTV (or any other service) to watch the show if or when it gets picked up – and news of that is coming in two or three weeks, thank Crom.

• Season three will most likely pick up at the beginning of Dillon's following football season, with the rest of the non-existent second half of season two as backstory.

• That said, Katims assured the fans that the Smash storyline will get its due. He praised that storyline, calling it the biggest challenge of the season.

• For all you haters of Tyra and Landry's weird murderous rampage, Katims apologized and assured fans that the storyline is over. He did praise Jesse Plemons and Adrianne Palicki for their performances, though.

• "I tried to imagine a universe where Landry and Tyra would get together," Katims said, referring to the thought process that led to the storyline.

• Assuming it gets picked up, the show will start shooting again in mid-July.

• Taylor Kitsch's role in Wolverine won't interfere with any shooting he might do for the show. He's playing Gambit in the upcoming X-Men prequel.

• I asked a question about what kind of turnover we could expect to see in the cast as the show went on. Katims joked that it'd be a nice problem to have to worry about the makeup of the cast over a multi-year run, and he said that it would be a balancing act between following the storylines of the original core characters and slowly introducing new ones.

• They hope to release a soundtrack.