I believe we can start thinking of satellite provider DirecTV as the Lourdes of television, the last hope for praised but low-rated TV shows and their fans. A couple years ago, it rescued Friday Night Lights by working out a cost-sharing deal with NBC in exchange for first-run rights. Now it’s adopting the award-winning legal thriller Damages from FX, guaranteeing it a fourth and fifth season—and this time, the show will belong to DirecTV alone.
The show, which was too expensive for FX for the numbers it brought in, is worth it to DirecTV as a prestige project. Glenn Close and Rose Byrne are returning, but there may be a need for budget cuts—as there were in FNL—and it will be interesting to see how that will affect a show that relied on big-name guests. But where there’s life, there’s hope.
So could this be a sign for Save Our Show campaigns of the future?
