DirecTV's 101 Makes Fall Season Ad-Free

NBC's Friday Night LightsTaking a cue from its cable networks, DirecTV's in-house original programming channel "The 101" will launch its new season commercial-free.

Highlighted by the recent acquisition of "Friday Night Lights," in which it will share airings with NBC, the channel's season debut on Wednesday, Oct.1 at 9 p.m. will air in HD and ad-free for the first time.

Other returning shows on The 101 include "Supreme Court of Comedy" and "Rock & A Hard Place." DirecTV will also add "Crash," a new original series from Starz Entertainment. The new series starring Dennis Hopper will run 13 episodes, and is based on the Academy Award-winning movie.

Starting Oct. 15, DirecTV will add a companion reality show for "Friday Night Lights" called "Live From Dillon," featuring cast members of the show discussing their characters, stories and taking live viewer questions.

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DirecTV will get the new episodes of "Lights"--now in its third season--and in turn, NBC will run the encores of those episodes, which begin next year.

The 101 has been around since 1999 on DirecTV, but only began to gather steam with new high-profile network shows in recent years. In April 2007--in what was to be a forerunner of the "Lights" deal--DirectTV and NBC Studios agreed to run new episodes of the NBC daytime soap "Passions."

This year, DirecTV decided not to renew the show, stopping it last month.

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