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Will Enough Fans Tune In To Keep 'Lights' On?

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By WALT BELCHER wbelcher

@tampatrib.com

Published: January 16, 2009

Updated: 01/16/2009 12:44 am

There are two events of note tonight: "Friday Night Lights" returns to NBC at 9 p.m., and "Battlestar Galactica" comes back to the Sci-Fi Channel at 10.

It's the final run for "Battlestar," but "Lights" could go on if there's enough viewer interest.

The critically-acclaimed "Lights" managed to survive cancellation last season thanks to an experimental funding arrangement.

The producers tightened the operating budget (some cast members were cut). Also, NBC split the cost with DirecTV, which started airing the third season last fall exclusively for satellite subscribers.

Now it's NBC's turn to run the 13 episodes. People who like this show really like it and will be back. But newcomers have to discover it for there to be a season four.

The action picks up with the beginning of a new school year and a new chase for the Texas state high school football championship.

The parents, students and players in the rural town of Dillon are anxious. Graduation has taken a toll on their beloved Panthers.

Running back Smash Williams (Gaius Charles) and paraplegic ex-quarterback Jason Street (Scott Porter) will exit after a few episodes.
Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) will have his hands full at work and at home. His wife Tami (Connie Britton) has been promoted to school principal, so she's his boss now.

While there are some soap opera elements when it comes to the story lines for the high school teen characters, "Friday Night Lights" remains a solid family drama that offers an adult, unsentimental view of a stable, loving marriage.

Speaking of the teens, a new freshman quarterback, J.D. (Jeremy Sumpter), will challenge senior ball slinger Matt (Zach Gilford). The new kid's pushy dad (D.W. Moffett) will cause problems for Taylor. Janine Turner (best known for "Northern Exposure") plays J.D.'s eccentric mother.

Meanwhile, Matt must deal with the return of the mother who abandoned him, a grandmother he takes care of who has dementia, and his girlfriend, Julie (Aimee Teegarden), the coach's daughter.

The formerly prim and religious Lyla (Minka Kelley) is loving sex with her boyfriend Tim (Taylor Kitsch). And the former town vixen Tyra (Adrianne Palicki) will make a run for student council president.

BATTLE STATIONS: "Battlestar Galactica" returns with the first of its final 10 episodes. Arguably one of the best sci-fi series, this reincarnation of a short-lived 1970s drama made us forget the clunky and almost laughable original that starred the late Lorne Greene.

Launched in 2004, the current "Battlestar" follows a ragtag fleet of spaceships containing the human survivors of a planet that was obliterated by the Cylons, an advanced "race" of robotic and cybernetic creations.

The survivors, led by President Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) and Cmdr. William Adama (Edward James Olmos), are on the run and looking for a planet called Earth.

In June's cliffhanger, they finally made it to Earth - only to find the planet a nuclear wasteland. Now what?

SHOW NIGHT: Sunday is a big night for Showtime. The pay-cable network will have three premieres of provocative adult fare: the kick-off of the final season of "The L Word" (a sort of lesbian version of "Sex and the City"); the second season of the British sex comedy "Secret Diary of a Call Girl," starring Billie Piper; and the debut of "United States of Tara," starring Toni Collette as a wife and mother with four personalities.

TUNE IN TONIGHT

"NBC: Dateline," 10 p.m., NBC

At press time, "Dateline" planned a report on Florida college student Rachel Hoffman, 23, from Clearwater, who was killed last year after she became an undercover informant for Tallahassee police.

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