I'm really starting to think America just doesn't get this show. The beleaguered drama about a football-obsessed small town in Texas is universally praised by critics but just can't pull decent ratings anywhere.

Starting out on NBC, "Friday Night Lights" was saved from cancelation by DirecTV, which now airs the show in its first run. The series gets a later run on NBC.

Then ABC Family picked it up in syndication this summer and had said it would air every episode and air them in order. But now TV Guide is reporting that the cable network has removed "Friday Night Lights" from its schedule, citing, you guessed it, low ratings.

It's puzzling, really. "Friday Night Lights" is an incredibly compelling portrait of small town America. The writing is solid and the acting is superb. Every single week it's hearbreaking and inspiring, funny and sad. So come on, America. Get in the game! The final season begins on DirecTV on October 27.

The music retail giant Guitar Center is getting into the TV game with a new show on DirecTV called "Guitar Center Sessions."

First up is musician Peter Gabriel, who taped a live show for them in California in which he performs and answers questions from an audience made up of mostly music students.

The show is hosted by Hosted by Jason Bentley, music director for KCRW.

All five seasons of HBO's critically acclaimed drama "The Wire" are coming soon to DirecTV. 

The series will air for the first time since its original HBO run, uncut and commercial free, beginning this Sunday, July 18.

This is also the first time "The Wire," which debuted on HBO in 2002, will be broadcast in high definition.

As a DirecTV exclusive, series creator David Simon will introduce the premiere and select episodes over the course of the series run.

Great news. The ABC Family channel has acquired the rights to all five seasons of the excellent NBC drama, "Friday Night Lights."

FNL premiered on NBC in 2006, but never grabbed a big audience. By the end of the second season, the only way NBC would give the show another shot was through a deal with DirecTV in which the satellite company would have first dibs on the episodes, and then NBC would run them later. That's how the third and fourth (current) seasons have aired, and that's how next season will work as well.

Next season, Season 5, will be the show's last. Season 5 will air on DirecTV in the fall of this year and on NBC in the spring of 2011. 

The show will be a nice fit on ABC Family, which will begin showing Season 1 in September of this year.  If you've never seen this show or if you just want to see it again, please circle September on your calendar. You won't regret it.

Note: This recap of Season Four's second episode ("After the Fall") originally ran here in November 2009, when the episode first aired on DirecTV.

Coach Taylor must face the aftermath of last week's forfeiture. His lawn is covered by white flags that say "Quitter," and the team stops showing up to practice. They're upset and embarrassed he didn't let them finish the game. Even complacent, agreeable Landry says he's done.

SPOILERS ahead...

Fans of "Friday Night Lights" were  thrilled last week when the show's fourth season returned to NBC after a first run on DirecTV.

In that debut episode, we got our first glimpse at what life has in store for Coach Taylor since getting fired from his job at Dillon High. WarmTV has a great recap of that episode from Sadia Latifi, written when the show first premiered in October 2009. 

On tonight's episode, titled "After the Fall," the East Dillon Lions snatch a star player from West Dillon after a controversy that puts Tami in an awkward position. Also, Matt Sarecen begins working with an eccentric local artist, and Riggins has to find a new place to live.

"Friday Night Lights" airs at 8pm on NBC. 

If you're behind on your Oscar flicks and want to be well-informed as you root for nominees Sunday night, you still have time to catch up.

Some are showing in local theaters ("Crazy Heart," "Avatar," "A Single Man"), and a few may still be left in The Red Box.

But you could also grab your remote and On-Demand those babies all night long (you can cry over your cable bill next month). 

Time Warner Cable has "The Hurt Locker," "Inglorious Basterds," "A Serious Man," "District 9," and "Up," all On Demand. DirecTV also has those movies plus "Blind Side" and "Precious."

Time Warner usually charges $3.99 for movies in standard definition and $4.99 in high defintion; DirecTV charges $4.99 for standard and $5.99 for high-def. 

Go ahead. There are worse ways to spend a weekend.

If you're a snow sports junkie, get ready for some pretty unrelenting Winter Olympics coverage from NBC, as they scramble to recoup some of the $820 million they paid for rights to the games.

The network has announced "multi-platform content offering" for the games, which simply means you can get a bunch of Olympics stuff a bunch of different ways.

In addition to watching NBC-owned channels on the regular ole boring TV (like I have), you can also watch those death-defying high jumps in glorious HD (Vancouver will be the first Olympic Winter Games available entirely in high definition), or through instant On Demand access, or over the internet.

Season four of "Friday Night Lights" begins tonight, but unfortunately for most of us, only for DirecTV subscribers.

As with the cost-sharing agreement for season three, season four of "Friday Night Lights" will air first in its entirety on DirecTV and then on NBC in late spring or early summer of 2010. The critically-acclaimed drama about a football-obsessed small town in Texas stars Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton (left).

NBC hasn't done right by the show, but this DirecTV deal is better than cancelling it altogether. Kyle Chandler summed it up nicely in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times: “The first year we were up against ‘American Idol.’ The second year was the writers strike. The third year we get cut down to 13 episodes. I just assumed that while we had a solid base, the numbers wouldn’t go out the roof."

Several N&O readers have complained that their DirecTV feed of Sunday’s game blacked out during the overtime period, only to reconnect after New Jersey had scored the winning goal.

A phone call to DirecTV’s public relations department was not returned. UPDATE: DirecTV spokesman Robert Mercer said he would check into the lost feed with the satellite company's technical operations department.

UPDATE 2: Mercer confirmed the outage, but said he was still investigating the cause. He apologized on behalf of DirecTV to those who missed the end.