The broadcast networks released their upcoming fall schedule recently and (as per usual) there is nothing to get too excited about it. It seems the best and most creative shows these days tend to show up on streaming services like Netflix, basic cable channels like AMC or premium channels such as HBO where creativity and taking a chance is more welcoming because those channels are not as closely tied to ratings like the broadcast channels are (ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX). It’s why Mad Men survived as long as it did on AMC, or why something called Tyrant (FX) is still on the air even though I don’t know anybody who has heard of it much less watched an episode. It’s why HBO can make 5 seasons of The Wire when more people will probably watch it On Demand today than anyone who watched it while it was actually on the schedule.
The big four TV networks are not only reliant on ratings, they also have an annoying habit of rehashing what was last year’s hit. This is why Shonda Rhimes has a whole night dedicated to her soaps and why there are a dozen variations of CSI’s and NCIS’s on the air. Network TV is basically a copy-and-repeat format for when something actually works and people watch, though every once in a while they should be given credit for taking a chance on a show or two even if it doesn’t attract the audience they are wishing for. Which is why I think now is the perfect time to develop that next great sports series.
Not since Friday Night Lights went off the air in 2011 have we had a series with sports as a major backdrop. But why? Doesn’t sports provide great drama? Wouldn’t a weekly series devoted to such drama be something people would watch, especially if we became invested in good characters? The answer is both yes and no. You need only to look at Friday Night Lights itself to see why making a sports drama, or comedy, is a big risk even if the show excels in quality entertainment.
The Friday Night Lights Conundrum
Friday Night Lights debuted in 2006 with one of the best pilots a show can start running with. Based on Inspiration from the book Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream and the 2004 film Friday Night Lights, the show followed life in a small Texas community where high school football is an obsession. The series mainly focused on the team’s coach and his wife as it followed their marriage and dealings with a town where football is not only a form of entertainment, but an escape, and for many of its student residents, a potential ticket to bigger and better things outside of their community. The series was a critical darling with many critics proclaiming it the best new show of the year. But, its ratings lagged and continued to dip for the next 4 seasons of its lifespan. So, how does a show with such critical highs produce such lows when it came to viewership? It is not uncommon for a critically acclaimed show to be unable to find an audience, there is usually one per season, but there is for each and every one a unique answer as to why.
For Friday Night Lights it could have been something as simple as the name. It debuted on a Tuesday. As senseless as it may seem, it is possible people didn’t want to watch a ‘Friday’ show on a Tuesday. Viewers can be fickle when they have a lot of shows and channels to choose from. Perhaps, NBC pushed the football element too much in its initial marketing campaign, confusing not only those who did watch it but to those who didn’t. While football was a major component of the show, so to was the marriage and relationship of Coach Taylor and his wife, as well as the lives and relationships of the students and families outside of the football stadium. The show’s later marketing campaign was “It’s About Life”, which although closer to the core of what the show was about, still might have confused those who never watched the show.
When season one ratings weren’t up to expectations, someone, whether it be the writers or the NBC head honchos, may have dealt a viewership death blow by introducing an asinine plot line in season two to try and boost ratings. The plot involved taking a fan favorite character that was often deployed for comedic relief, Landry Clarke, and having him kill a guy who attempted to rape a girl he admired. The plot seemed like something from another show and not only went against the grain of Friday Night Lights, but took two key, believable characters and turned them into unbelievable criminals. It felt wrong on the whole and may have turned away many viewers who were with the show from the beginning while not exactly adding any new ones. Season two was also cut short due to a writers’ strike that prematurely ended the season on a cliffhanger that was not meant to be one. The show was in immediate danger of being cancelled and it probably would have been if not for the deal struck between NBC and DIRECTV to help keep Friday Night Lights alive.
The next few seasons saw the show return to form, but its ratings still struggled. Viewership dwindled down to roughly 3.6 million watching by its final run of episodes, nearly half the number from its initial start. The show moved to Fridays after season 1, which is never a big night for ratings; however, it might have kept the show on the air longer as the bar for Friday ratings are not the same as the bar for Tuesday ratings. Perhaps people never really understood what the show was all about. Football? Life? Landry: The Rapist Killer? Perhaps the debacle of those writing decisions in season 2 derailed any chance it had at gaining momentum. Whatever the case may be, Friday Night Lights would go on to be critically adored but with few eyeballs watching it. After the final season in 2011 the show had left its mark, though quietly, as one of the best shows about sports and life to air on television. Friday Night Lights had become The Wire of broadcast network TV. So, what can we learn from Friday Night Lights as we await the next great sports series?
Friday Night Lights: 5 Takeaways for Making the Next Sports Based Series
– If your show has a day of the week in the title, just stick it on that day of the week’s schedule. Don’t even attempt to confuse people with what day it is or they won’t watch your show. It would be like having a show called Sunday Night Football and airing it on a Thursday. That would be dumb.
– Get your marketing campaign straight the first time around. During its launch, Friday Night Lights marketed to the younger demographic and promoted more of the football component of the show. Problem was, this was not 90210 and this was not just a football show. When initial ratings didn’t bode well, marketing for the show tried to shift to the female demographic to help boost ratings, promoting the show as a series about family and relationships. What Friday Night Lights should have done from the beginning was promote the show as a family series, because at its best that’s what it was. Instead, NBC tried the one or the other approach, each time dismissing half of their potential viewers. And when that didn’t work this happened: Don’t do it Landry!
– Diversify your cast. While Friday Night Lights did a lot right, it was still mostly a white show set in a predominately white neighborhood, though later seasons did deal a little more with race and class division. With the recent success of Empire and Black-ish, proving that it’s not only 18-49 year old white males who watch TV, it’s time we got a more diverse show about sports and life which will not only reach out to more viewers, it would also expand the opportunities for stories and location. Many of Friday Night Lights’ stories revolved around someone using the gift of excelling at football as a potential means of having a better life outside of a town they felt trapped in. How many times have you heard that from an actual professional athlete and how many more times than not is that player African American? While every story involving characters, white or black, wanting a better life on Friday Night Lights had merit, having those stories told from the focal point of another race or another culture would be something unique to broadcast TV and would be instantly more essential to tell. You could remake Friday Night Lights today and set it down in a black community and easily have another great show on your hands.
– Sports and ordinary life make great bedfellows, when done right. What Friday Night Lights did so well was meld every day life with sports. While the scenes of action on the football field was expertly done drama, perhaps no show since Friday Night Lights has depicted married life so well. It was able to do this because there was rarely a false note from any of the characters (shaking my head at Landry again). The Taylor’s fought and bickered like married couples do, but they always made amends in the end and but in the same episode. The football scenes, while sometimes clichéd as any sports scenes have to be, never felt out of sync with the main plotlines but instead were there to help support and elevate the main plot. The pilot episode where the star quarterback gets paralyzed is heart wrenching as the rest of the season dealt with the aftermath both in physical terms and relationship terms. Later seasons involving play on the field paralleled father and son issues, mother and son issues and even substance abuse (Riggins drank a lot!). Friday Night Lights did not have an easy balancing task, but it did it better than most shows before or since.
– Set it in a post-apocalyptic world with zombies. Let’s face it, everyone loves sports and everyone loves zombies. So, why not combine the two? Just think of all the drama you could have! A cliffhanger featuring a winning touchdown drive being threatened by a horde of zombies, the quarterback trying to get one last pass away as he also tries to save his arm from being dinner. Ratings gold. And for once, it would make sense for Landry to kill someone.
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