In an interview with Fresh Air's David Bianculli, Friday Night Lights star Kyle Chandler confirmed that a third season of the Austin-filmed show is on....

It's not official yet, but yesterday evening Nikke Finke reported on her blog that NBC is making a deal with DirecTV to keep airing critically-acclaimed and locally-filmed Friday Night Lights. ...

The Mohawk presents a solid double bill of local pop this evening. The Lemurs have been writing new material over the last few months and a handful of those songs will be included in their set tonight. The band enjoyed a stellar 2007 -- highlights included licensing their music to NBC show Las Vegas (as well as an Australian indie flick called Newcastle) and touring with Canadian act Stars. This past Sunday, ME Television telecast a 2nd ME Live! featuring The Lemurs' shimmering melodies in concert at a recent La Zona Rosa gig....

CNN today announced that Campbell Brown, NBC News' White House correspondent during President George W. Bush's first term and host of a new prime-time news program that's set to debut this month, will anchor next Thursday's debate. CNN chief national correspondent John King and Univision anchor Jorge Ramos will serve as panelists asking questions of the candidates during the debate....

"Unfortunately, no one watches it": NBC's head entertainment honcho seems pessimistic about the chances of a third season of Austin-filmed Friday Night Lights. KLRU's Tom Spencer to head up Austin Area Interreligious Ministries. All of the City's diesel fleet will soon run on bio-diesel. 17-year-old charged with two counts of sexual assault on the Texas State campus....

Joe Rogan is intimidating; not merely physically, but as an evangelist for stand-up comedy as a means of creative expression—as an art form. Rogan famously accused Carlos Mencia of stealing other comics’ material in an exchange that highlighted not just his physical stature but his wit and his dedication to the craft. Having been on the cast of NewsRadio, Rogan certainly has the credentials to back his convictions. We had a chit-chat with him earlier this week, in anticipation of his performance at the Cap City Comedy Club on December 30th and 31st....

Now in its sixth week, the Writers Guild of America strike is still going strong. And despite Alec Baldwin's hilarious/bizarre advice and Michael Eisner's name-calling, WGA members show few signs of giving in any time soon. Though the effects of the strike are most evident in places like Los Angeles and New York City, you may be surprised to learn that there are around 100 WGA members living here in Austin....

Logo from Austin Jewish Book Fair Keynote Lecture: "Iraq, Al Qaeda, and the Future of Israel" with Jeffrey Goldberg and Lawrence WrightSunday, November 11Jewish Community Association of Austin (7300 Hart Lane)7:30pm, $12 Gen Ad, $10 Students/Seniors/JCC Members[info] | [tickets] Austin Graphics and Comics Night with Paul Benjamin and Terry and Patty LaBanThursday, November 8Barnes and Noble Westlake (701 S. Capital of Texas)7:30pm, Free[info]Less than four days are left in the 2007 Austin Jewish Book Fair,......

Flood waters threaten thousands in southern Mexico. Hurricane Noel will bring heavy rainfall to the East Coast. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice begs U.S. Diplomats to serve overseas. NASA plans a risky spacewalk to save a ripped solar wing at the international space station. Hollywood writers are set to declare a strike sometime today. Get ready for a reality television blitz! NBC Anchor Brian Williams is hosting SNL this week. The reunion show......

As our friend The M.O. reported, Ghostland Observatory are set to perform on Late Night with Conan O'Brien tomorrow evening. It will be their first nationally televised performance, and they're expected to play a tune from delete.delete.i.eat.meat.... GLO recently recorded a set for Austin City Limits, and we can expect that episode to air on KLRU sometime in December. Known for their energy-packed live sets, GLO are wrapping up a very exciting year that saw......

This week, Phillyist saw the waters of a landmark fountain run red for a Showtime marketing stunt, the Phils pull ahead, and some serious nostalgia. They also got a chance to review an awesome tribute album, reminded folks to see the King, and appreciated their beautiful skyline. Chicagoist knows what it's like to like the Cubs. But naming your kid Wrigley Fields? At least they can breathe a little easier now that Grossman's out and......

Have you been missing out on NBC's Friday Night Lights? Did last season's Wednesday night showing time not gel with your schedule? Well, we're going to give you five reasons why you should make time to watch this award-winning, but low rated, show. 1. The show is filmed in Austin. Local landmarks show up on the show, from EZ's in the opening credits to the Dairy Queen on Manor (where Matt works) to Brackenridge Hospital......

NBC's sweaty teen pigskin drama Friday Night Lights, now shooting in Austin, is still casting extras. And they made a MySpace page about it! Now, interested young hopefuls eager to sample the Dionysian craft-service spoils of the new Texas film incentives plan may simply hit up FNL on MySpace for instructions and call times. They're casting football players, cheerleaders, teachers and students, and seeking all ages and ethnicities. However, their MySpace page does hold one......

Five local personalities get together to tell The Sickest F***ing Stories I Ever Heard over a game of Texas Hold 'Em 101x hosts a Guitar Hero happy hour at Stubb's Car Stereo (Wars) celebrate the release of their first album, The Bandit—think Burt Reynolds circa 1977—at Beauty Bar, with a little help from Single Frame, White Denim, and NYC DJs Finger on the Pulse Peter Bean, founder of BurntOrangeNation.com, and Chip Brown, a sportswriter......

When it comes to U.S. Presidents, few people know more than Michael Beschloss, NBC News' official Presidential Historian. His best-selling books have covered all things executive and his latest, Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America, 1789-1989, examines several moments within 200 years of American history when Presidents had to seriously represent, keeping it realer than real for the sake of the nation and the world. On Monday, June 11th, the LBJ Future......

Yesterday it was announced that NBC has renewed the small-town Texas drama, Friday Night Lights. Michael Ausiello from TV Guide says that a full season (22 episodes) has been ordered. But more relevant to us: it will still be filming in Austin (guess the incentives worked). We can look forward to more filming in Northeast Austin and other local areas. If you haven't yet seen an episode of the Peabody Award-winning show, all the......

It's not a season renewal, but NBC has asked for six new scripts for the locally-filmed drama. This is the second item of good news for the show in recent days; last week the show was awarded a prestigious Peabody Award for being the only current television series "grounded in contemporary American reality". If Friday Night Lights is renewed, the location of the filming is still up in the air; it could move away......

Austin City Council yesterday voted unanimously to approve economic incentives for NBC's drama series, "Friday Night Lights," in order to keep the production based here. An economic development grant of $40,000 would be offered to NBC Universal if the network commits to filming the second season in Austin; a subsequent $40,000 grant would be presented upon completion of filming. "Austin is becoming the alternative to Hollywood as the kind of ground-zero for independent digital......

Explosions in the Sky's soaring melodies and tight instrumental flair burst into Emo's last night, wowing the sold out crowd. Always a local favorite, the band has been garnering more and more accolades through touring and prominent placement on the soundtrack of primetime NBC television series Friday Night Lights, which is filmed here in Austin (at least for now). The band's sound was tight and at times as explosive as the fireworks that gave......

It looks like NBC might move the locally-filmed drama Friday Night Lights out of Austin to save money. It might be possible to use rural east New Mexico (we're thinking the Las Cruces area), but Louisiana for West Texas? Nah. Such a move is being forced on the show to save $100,000 an episode, and the network is considering these states. The city and Texas state lawmakers (even Gov. Perry) are trying to provide enough......

Austin's Explosions In The Sky play powerful instrumental indie-rock that has been compared to Mogwai and Sigur Ros and are widely lauded by critics. Their live shows have become so popular that their Emo's show in March has been sold out for weeks, and multiple-night runs are now needed in cities like New York and Toronto. After a three-plus year wait, EITS's new album All Of A Sudden, I Miss Everyone arrives on Tuesday.......

Austinist reader Christien Bings alerted us to a Myspace bulletin posted by local band Lil' Cap'n Travis, who'll be making an appearance in an upcoming episode of Friday Night Lights. They're currently looking for a handful of paid extras to serve as "Austin Club Goers": The Lil' Cap'n Travis Band will be performing for a scene in the NBC television series, Friday Night Lights on Friday, February 9, 2007. We are looking for fans of......

As if being named the Best Movie House in the Country by Entertainment Weekly was not enough, our friends over at the Alamo Drafthouse recently got some more national attention when they were name-dropped on NBC’s Heroes. In case, like some of us, you've never seen "Heroes," it's a drama that features ordinary people who discover that they have superpowers. In the episode that aired on Monday the 27th, Hiro, a male character from......

Thanksgiving: a time for celebrating family, eating food, and of course, watching TV. Well, we're here to recommend some options: The given: "Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade", 9am, NBC/KXAN. The random: Twelve hours of Doris Day films on TCM, starting at 5am. Pigs at Thanksgiving?: Babe on NBC/KXAN, 2pm. Katie pre-TomKat: One of our favorite Thanksgiving films, Pieces of April, is on IFC at 4:15pm. What Not to Wear on Thanksgiving: What Not to Wear......

We learn this afternoon from trustworthy sources that NBC has ordered a full season's worth of episodes of Friday Night Lights. This means more shooting in our area, more jobs for local actors, and it's a great vote of confidence by the network for a show filmed outside of Hollywood. Tomorrow night it's Homecoming in Dillon, and all hell breaks loose. Street now knows that his girlfriend is gettin' it on with his best......

We’ve underestimated them. For eons, we’ve thought receptionists were just pretty faces with good phone etiquette redirecting our calls. The sentinels of the company. The greeter of all guests. Sitting behind those fortress-like desks with only their eyes peering over the top, they’ve fooled everyone. We’ve always thought they were spending the time between phone calls creating the world’s biggest rubber band ball, or adding another yard to their paperclip chain. Maybe an occasional......

Out at the refurbished Del Valle High School football stadium, a staged homecoming football game was filmed last Friday night and into the pre-dawn hours of Saturday. The “game” was the backdrop for the Austin-based NBC series Friday Night Lights. The show’s pilot premieres tonight at 7:00 p.m. “We wrapped at 4:00 a.m.,” assistant director Michael Waxman said. “I’ve had about 3-1/2 hours of sleep at this point.” Waxman was talking by cell phone from......

Despite Austin's population of just 700,000, there is no denying that we have become the regional hub for film and television production in the Southwest. In fact, no fewer than six films shot in Austin will hit screens between now and Thanksgiving. If you're curious about what those trucks near the Capitol building and at Texas Chili Parlor have been up to, or simply want to support locally made films with your movie dollars......

The former staffer who stole from Lloyd Doggett and some other Austin Democrats has been sentenced to 30 days in jail. There will be no dirty dancing at McNeil High School's homecoming this year. Parents and teachers felt uncomfortable with the idea of possible bumping-n-grinding on the dance floor, so the homecoming dance is now cancelled. The rich get richer, and the middle-class gets screwed. Forget smash and grab. One Italian couple would smooch......

After reading all the blog-hype this summer and viewing whatever clips/pilots we could find on YouTube, we’ve got our picks for new shows that seem the most interesting/original/well-made/least lame. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, NBC, Monday @ 9pm. On September 18, you can see the pilot. We caught it in early August when it was on YouTube (before NBC took it down), but if you can’t wait a couple of weeks, Netflix has......