The folks at Imagine Entertainment and NBC Universal Media Studios, producers of "Friday Night Lights," owe a ton of gratitude to DirecTV for making it easy for every Academy of Television Arts & Sciences member to see the entire series before voting three major Emmy nominations to the critically acclaimed but low-rated series.
Frustrated with hearing people say they heard good things about "FNL" but never saw the show, DirecTV, in an unusual but not unprecedented move, decided to finance a mailing of a package containing all 13 of this season's show to every Academy member.
While no one will ever know how many members actually watched all or part of this season's series, the fact is the show's stars, Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, were nominated for Emmys for best actor and actress in a drama series. Also, Rolin Jones was nominated in the highly competitive Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series category, beating out writers from dramas with much higher ratings.
It's the first time a show airing original episodes on DirecTV has received Emmy nominations.
"Friday Night Lights" originally aired on NBC for two seasons before the network was ready to cancel it due to low ratings. But because the series was critically acclaimed, NBC found a way to keep it alive. A deal was struck with DirecTV before the start of the 2008-09 season, under which the 13-episode season of "FNL" would run first in the fall on DirecTV, and then repeat on NBC. That arrangement has lasted for the past two seasons.
While the show's audiences on both NBC and DirecTV have been loyal, they have not been huge. On NBC, on July 2, the most recent night "FNL" aired on the network, the show drew 3.4 million viewers and a 1.1 adults 18-49 rating. It won its 8 p.m. Friday timeslot against other repeats, but overall, the show was only the 17th-most-watched drama on broadcast for the week and the 51st-most-watched show overall.
On DirecTV this past fall, in first-run, "FNL" averaged 766,717 viewers, up 18 percent from the 648,483 viewers it averaged during the 2008-09 season.
Patty Ishimoto, VP of entertainment for DirecTV and general manager of DirecTV's The 101 network, where "FNL" runs, told TheWrap that just sending out a single episode or two of the series to Academy members wouldn't give them a true representation of the series as a whole, and of the depth of performances by the characters on the show.
The mailing of all 13 episodes to each Academy member was not cheap. While no one from DirecTV or Universal Media Studios would comment on the cost, individuals familiar with such mailings said putting together a package with just one DVD could cost north of $100,000. Add the weight of 12 more DVDs and multiply the cost by 14,000 Academy members.
But clearly, the benefits can be worth it.
"We really have believed in this show for some time," Ishimoto told TheWrap. "We hope it will now start to finally get the attention it deserves. It's always been an amazing show, but this year we really gave it our all to promote it."
Asked if she was surprised that the show's two top actors got nominations, she said, "I was excited to hear, but I wasn't shocked. I was pleasantly surprised."
There have been rumblings that next season will be the show's last, but Ishimoto said that hasn't been decided for sure. "We haven't talk with NBC about it," she told TheWrap. "But we are huge fans and so are our customers, so we'll see what happens."
Ishimoto said she hadn't yet spoken to Chandler and Britton but was on her way to Austin, Texas, on Thursday, where the show films, to attend a shooting of promotional spots for next season.
"I'm flying there for that, so I'll be able to congratulate them in person," she said.
