Heading into their third season, the cast members of the long-threatened NBC drama "Friday Night Lights" said today that they acutely feel the gratitude that comes with being pulled back from the brink of cancellation.

“It was sort of like we were thrown a life ring,” actor Kyle Chandler said of the deal NBC struck with DirecTV to split the series' production costs and distribution rights. "I feel like it's a brand new show."

As part of the agreement, the satellite provider gets to air the new 13-episode season of “Friday Night Lights” this October before it debuts in February on the broadcast network.

“When the opportunity came up, we jumped right on it,” said Eric Shanks, executive vice president of entertainment for DirecTV, a self-professed fan of the show who said Chandler’s Coach Taylor “has enormously impacted how I raise my child.”

When the series airs Wednesdays on DirecTV’s 101 Network, each episode will be paired with a 30-minute live call-in show, in which fans can talk with actors from the show.

Because “Friday Nights Lights” will air on such different platforms, producers are considering creating two distinct versions of each episode to take advantage of having a longer run time and fewer content restrictions on satellite.