Hulu’s New Friday Night Lights Replacement Sets Official Premiere Date In Major Slot

This article covers a developing story. Continue to check back with us as we will be adding more information as it becomes available.Hulu is giving its upcoming Friday Night Lights replacement series, The Land, a high-profile release date. Several football-themed TV shows have aired over the years, most notably Friday Night Lights, which stars Kyle Chandler as football coach Eric Taylor. The series has an almost perfect score of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and earned 13 nominations at the Emmys throughout its five-season run, with Chandler winning Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2011. All American recently ended on The CW after eight seasons, so now Hulu is stepping in to fill in the gap left by these series. The Land will premiere its first two episodes on Monday, February 15, a very fitting date since that's the day after Super Bowl LXI airs on ABC, ESPN and Disney+. The rest of the season will be released weekly on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+. Unlike Friday Night Lights and All American, though, The Land does not center on a high school team. Instead, Christopher Meloni stars as Cleveland Browns coach Danny Roarke. His NFL team has faced a lot of disappointment in recent years, so the stakes are high for him to turn everything around for the better. He puts faith in his new quarterback, who's also his son. The team is also facing an ownership change, as Hal Durkin determines which of his children will replace him. Mandy Moore, Chace Crawford, Sam Corlett, Tanner Zagarino, Chloe Bennet, Bridget Moynahan, William H. Macy and Omar Epps also star on The Land with Meloni. Dan Fogelman, best known for creating This Is Us and Paradise, and executive-producing Only Murders in the Building, created The Land. He's also the showrunner and an executive producer with Jess Rosenthal, Kevin Falls, Justin Adler, David Ellison, Jesse Sisgold and Jason T. Reed. Fogelman has worked on a sports-themed TV show before, as he created the scripted baseball series Pitch, which was made in partnership with Major League Baseball. Similarly, the National Football League's production company NFL Films is involved with The Land. Meloni is best known as one of the stars of the long-running procedural Law & Order: SVU, which is about to premiere its 28th season. He was one of the original stars but left after season 12. A decade later, the actor reprised Elliot Stabler on the spinoff Law & Order: Organized Crime, and made some recurring and guest appearances on SVU. Unfortunately, Organized Crime was canceled earlier this year after five seasons, though Meloni is set to guest star in SVU's 600th episode. Despite Organized Crime's cancellation, Meloni will be back on the small screen in February as he starts a brand-new chapter in his career on The Land. The Land premieres Monday, February 16, 2027, on Hulu.