A reboot of the Emmy-winning series ‘Friday Night Lights’ lands at Peacock
The show, inspired by former Inquirer journalist H.G. 'Buzz' Bissinger’s 1990 book, will be directed by Peter Berg
A reboot of the Emmy-winning series Friday Night Lights has found a home on the NBCUniversal streamer, Peacock.
Friday Night Lights, the 2006 TV series, was inspired by a 1990 nonfiction book by former Inquirer reporter and contributing Vanity Fair editor H.G. “Buzz” Bissinger, who divides his time between Philadelphia and southwest Washington state. The book chronicled Odessa, Texas’ Permian High School football team as they rose to become state champions.
Before turning into a TV series, Bissinger’s book was a bestseller, which was adapted into a 2004 feature film directed by Peter Berg and starring Billy Bob Thornton.
In August, when asked if he finds it strange that people still talk about Friday Night Lights, Bissinger said: “It’s ridiculous. It’s absolutely amazing. It’s like the pesticide-resilient cockroach, it just won’t go away.”
While writing for The Inquirer, Bissinger won a Pulitzer Prize in 1987 for a six-part investigation of corruption in the Philadelphia court system.
The original TV series was also directed by Berg, and aired on NBC for two seasons. It starred Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton and won several awards, including a Peabody and an Emmy for outstanding casting for a drama series. The show also served as a launchpad for stars such as Jesse Plemons, Minka Kelly, Scott Porter, Aimee Teegarden, and Michael B. Jordan.
According to Deadline, a bidding war for the TV reboot was won by Peacock, beating out players like Netflix. Jason Katims, the 2006 series’ showrunner, will helm the project along with Berg and producer Brian Grazer.
The reboot will again be set in Texas in the aftermath of a devastating hurricane. It will follow the journey of a “rag tag high school football team and their damaged, interim coach” as they make an “unlikely bid for a Texas High School State Championship and become a beacon of light for their town,” Deadline reported.