Shame on you, NBC, for moving the critically acclaimed Friday Night Lights to your Friday night 9pm slot. Perhaps it is more fitting, what with the name of the show, but I worry that the move will send this fantastic program into primetime oblivion, losing even the rabid core of fans that stuck with it through all of last season.

Now to you, dear viewers. Why are more of you not watching this show? Not a fan of high school dramas? Not a football fanatic? Not reason enough.

I actually do like high school dramas. I’ll ashamedly admit to having been a die-hard Dawson’s Creek fan (I was an extra on the show), as well as an on-again off-again viewer of The O.C. And I do love football. I’ve been a North Carolina State Wolfpack fan through good and bad seasons (this one being a disturbingly bad one) and have been an Indianapolis Colts fan for many years.

But when it first premiered last year, I was extremely pre-disposed to hate Friday Night Lights. Why? The television show is based on a movie which was, in its own right, based on a stellar non-fiction book of the same name by H.D. Bissenger. I love this book and have actually read it twice now, just for the sheer enjoyment. The movie - well directed by Peter Berg, and superbly acted by Billy Bob Thornton, Lucas Black, Derek Luke, and Garrett Hedlund - I rank in my top five sports movies of all time (along with Hoosiers, Rudy, The Sandlot, and Eight Men Out).

Both the book and the movie follow the 1988 Permian Panthers as they push through a grueling season where their star player is injured, dashing his chances at a football career. It is a story full of action, real-life drama, and most importantly…heart.

Considering my deep love of both the book and the movie, I was appalled to hear that Berg was adapting the story for the small screen. I was convinced he was going to tarnish the name of both. But with morbid curiosity (much like staring at a car crash as you drive by) I tuned in last year on a Tuesday night at 8:00pm. I was prepared to hate the show. Hate it.The opening credits began to roll to the tune of a beautiful track by Explosions in the Sky, who scored most of the film, and I was marginally placated. Ten minutes into the show I had forgotten why I planned to hate it. An hour later I was pretty sure I loved it. Now it is one season later and I will be the first to say that this is one of the finest televisions shows to grace our viewing schedules in the past ten years.