WHY NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE ARE WATCHING FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

It should come as no surprise that the TV version of Friday Night Lights, like the fictional Texas town it's set in, is dying.

Got home the other night and saw that a friend who's a working sportswriter* had added "Save Friday Night Lights" to his MSN handle. A little Googling turns up at least two online petitions, Save Friday Night Lights and Fans of Friday Night Lights United.

Whether or not the show is good (and by almost all accounts, it is) is neither here nor there. It's just that it's hard to see where the audience is for a sports-centred prime-time show. Can't remember off-hand who made this argument first, but there's no getting around the reality that the audience is footballed out.

(UPDATE: Dying, yes -- 81st in the Neilsons -- but NBC is going to give Friday Night Lights a full season. Hey, there's DVDs to be sold.)

As a sidebar, you could argue that, like in the post-Vietnam era, the current U.S. quagmire over in Iraq has created a glum mood about Americans that is more open to a good, gritty prime-time drama. Plus the traditional sitcom is all but dead and people are sick to death of "reality shows." So Lights might just be ahead of its time. But meantime, think of the TV audience as divided up into three elements.

1. People who recoil in terror whenever "sports" comes up. You know 'em: They're the ones who always proudly say, "I know nothing about sports," and expect you to give them -- what's that thing they give out at the Olympics? -- a medal for it. They'll never watch or read anything if has a sports label. Hey, don't judge. I have the same complex about whaling, so consequently I've never read Moby Dick.
2. The casual sports-likers. This crowd might not make a point to watch actual football every week, so they're going to watch a show about a high school football team?
3. The hard-core sports fans. They get their football fix from Saturday afternoon college games, Sunday and Monday night NFL games, along with blogs, websites and fantasy leagues. Some have "spouses" and "children" (so I'm told) who might get control of the clicker at night.

Now, obviously there's people in all three groups who have fallen in like with Friday Night Lights. Regardless, points 2 and 3 that are the most important. Anyone who reads Bill Simmons knows about his love of a late '70s TV series, White Shadow, that was about a high school basketball team. However, that was in a zero-channel universe, though, and there wasn't the same amount of televised games to amuse sports guys and gals.

If you live in the U.S., Tuesday (the night Lights was first put on) is about the only night you can't watch a football game on TV. A lot of sports fans might not be so eager to watch a show that's about football. They are footballed out.

It's the same deal in Canada, where generally, every hockey-centred show has received poor ratings, if not been an outright flop. CBC's Hockeyville went largely ignored, except among the small-town lame-Os (God love 'em) who were trying to help their town win. The two-part miniseries on the '72 Canada-Russia series was exceptionally well done, with several genuine chill scenes, yet it came and went. Ditto Hockey: A People's History: Good reviews, but definitely not a "talker." It also came and went.

For a while there, Global had buried Making The Cut in Sunday afternoon dead time.

When people can see a NHL game on every night, watch NHL highlights virtually 24 hours a day, and interact with the game via the web, they may bet too sated to watch another hockey show, at least on an over-the-air network. The same goes for Americans with football.

(* Working sportswriter. That's something you'll never be again, Sager.)

Sort-of related:
Sports Movies That Won't Freak Out Your Girlfriend (July 6)

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.