'Friday Night Lights' Turns 20 as Critics Rank It No. 1

Friday Night Lights' marks 20 years since its Oct. 3, 2006 premiere, ranked the No. 1 sports series ever by TVLine and "untouchable" by MovieWeb.

The sports drama premiered on NBC on October 3, 2006, introducing the small town of Dillon, Texas, where stars of the local high school football team are essentially royalty, per TVLine. MovieWeb traces the property back to H.G. Bissinger's 1990 nonfiction book about the Permian Panthers in Odessa, Texas, which inspired a 2004 film that Peter Berg directed and then rebooted for television. Rather than continue the movie as a backdoor pilot, NBC started from scratch, moving the story to a fictional Dillon and borrowing only the flavor and themes of the 2004 film. The show ran for 76 episodes over five seasons, ending on its own terms in 2011.

TVLine reports the show was nearly canceled after Season 2, hurt by low ratings, mishandled plot swerves, and a shortened episode order caused by the 2007–08 writers' strike. NBC Entertainment head Ben Silverman complained, 'I love it. You love it. Unfortunately, no one watches it,' in remarks TVLine cites from Radar Online. An adamant fan campaign begged the network to save the series, and in March 2008 NBC announced an unconventional partnership with distributor DirecTV, letting the show play out fully despite never being a huge hit during its initial run.

MovieWeb argues that while 'Ted Lasso' sits near the top of any list of great sports series, recency bias may be skewing things, and over the whole of TV history 'Friday Night Lights' remains superior. The outlet notes the two shows adopt drastically different tones: unlike the feel-good 'Ted Lasso,' 'Friday Night Lights' doesn't shy away from disasters on and off the field, using them as philosophical teaching moments. TVLine, for its part, says the show ranked No. 1 on its list of best-ever sports series, praising rich characterization and an authentic shaky-cam feel that hooked even viewers with zero interest in football.

Both outlets stress the show's casting legacy. TVLine says it served as a launching pad for Connie Britton, Michael B. Jordan, Jesse Plemons and Taylor Kitsch, with Kyle Chandler calling it 'probably one of the better acting classes I ever had' in a 2018 Entertainment Weekly interview cited by TVLine.