"Friday Night Lights" back for a third season

Rest easy, "FNL" fans.

NBC confirmed today that it will bring its low-rated but beloved drama "Friday Night Lights" back for a third season thanks to a partnership with DirecTV when it unveiled next year's lineup of shows.

"FNL" will debut Oct. 1 on DirecTV's entertainment channel "The 101," but sadly, we probably won't be seeing episodes aired on NBC until the winter of 2009. That's a long wait unless you already have DirecTV. But definitely better than the alternative - cancellation.

NBC's new schedule has the following shows returning: "Heroes," "The Office," "My Name is Earl," "30 Rock," "The Apprentice," "Deal or No Deal," "Law & Order," "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and "Medium." "ER" will be back for its 15th and final season.

A number of new shows will stick around including "Life," "Chuck" and "Lipstick Jungle." And according to this article, there's also spin-off of "The Office" in the works. I truly hope they're not seriously bringing to life "The Office: Stamford" because although I'm awesome, my ideas are sometimes hideous (I did once believe jean-shorts were hip). Hear that, Greg Daniels?

Although "Scrubs" has disappeared from NBC's schedule, fellow network ABC may be picking it up for a seventh season.

-- Malavika Jagannathan, mjaganna@greenbaypressgazette.com