"FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS" BOOSTS STUDENT BODY AT EAST DILLON HIGH WITH NEW CAST MEMBER GREY DAMON

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. - April 13, 2010 - The critically acclaimed drama series "Friday Night Lights" has cast Grey Damon ("True Blood") as East Dillon High basketball player Hastings Ruckle. Damon joins as a series regular for season five, currently in production in Austin, TX.

Damon will portray Hastings Ruckle, a high school kid that has never spent more than a year in one place, but landing in East Dillon, he feels at home for the first time as the laid-back star of the basketball team. His breezy indifference on and off the court doesn't sit well with Coach Taylor, who hopes to mold him into a key member of the Lions' offensive line.

"Grey Damon is an incredibly talented young actor who came into the audition and seemed to just embody the role of Hastings. We're so happy to have him join the cast," expressed executive producer Jason Katims.

NBC will broadcast all thirteen episodes of "Friday Night Lights'" fourth season starting Friday, May 7 (8-9 p.m. ET). Season five premieres on DirecTV's The 101 Network this Fall.

Expanding on the hit feature film and best-selling book "Friday Night Lights," the award-winning show centers on life in Dillon, Texas, where high school football brings the community together -- and the drama of small town life threatens to tear it apart.

The series is executive-produced by Peter Berg (the film "Friday Night Lights," "Hancock"), who also wrote and directed the pilot, Jason Katims ("Parenthood"), Brian Grazer ("Frost/Nixon," "The Da Vinci Code"), David Nevins ("Arrested Development") and Sarah Aubrey ("Trauma").

"Friday Night Lights" is a production of Universal Media Studios, Imagine Entertainment and Film 44.