After barely surviving last season, the excellent TV drama Friday Night Lights has been renewed for not just one but two years. The satellite service DirecTV saved the program last year when NBC was about to cancel it, by providing additional revenue for the right to show the episodes several months before they would appear on the broadcast TV network.

The show returns October 28 on DirecTVs The 101 Network, commercial-free, with the same arrangement as last year allowing the episodes to be shown on NBC next year. The fourth and fifth seasons of the show will consist of thirteen episodes apiece.

Friday Night Lights: Recommended.