Damages’ third season wrapped in April and most fans assumed the series would be cancelled.

Look for the next season Damages to air next summer; Glenn Close and Rose Byrne are both confirmed to return to the series.

David Spade isn’t backing down on this one – while many weigh in on the Chris Farley ad controversy as being in poor taste, Spade maintains it’s a great tribute and that Farley’s family gave the okay to do the DirecTV ad.

According to David Spade, he says of the Chris Farley ad controversy: “These commercials are cool. They’re well done. They’re clever. And that they would include ‘Tommy Boy’ in that company, I thought was very flattering.”

Further, Spade says Farley would have supported the DirecTV commercial: “Oh, my God if [Chris] was here, I guarantee he’d be stoked that this little movie is included. The movie is important to me, and I would hate to offend [anyone] because that’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever done. So I would apologize to someone who took it that way.”

As for the controversy surrounding David Spade doing the ad for a buck: “I wouldn’t want anyone to get a whiff that I’m trying to get something off Chris.”

And the Farley family is cool with it too, with Spade noting: “When DirecTV came to me and the Farley family with this idea about ‘Tommy Boy,’ we talked and thought it would be a cool way to remind people just how funny Chris was. It is a clever homage to my friend and a movie that we loved doing.”

I hate the DirecTV commercials overall… but this one is just wrong.

Of course, if you don’t have DirecTV, you need to wait until next summer to get your Friday Night Lights fix when it airs on NBC.

Friday Night Lights executive producer Jason Katims commented: “Not only do we know the show is staying on, but we know exactly how many episodes we are going to do. We’ll be able to think about where we might want to lead to … what kind of stories we want to tell.”

No doubt Friday Night Light’s great reviews, nominations and awards – not to mention the loyal fan base – helped the series stay on the air.

As we saw this season, Friday Night Lights will air on DirecTV before its network broadcasts on NBC.

Friday Night Lights stars Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton – who made our list of the hottest moms of all time.

Of course, neither NBC nor DirecTV have yet commented on the deal, but an NBC insider commented that the studio is “actively looking at ways to keep FNL going.”

EW.com reports that another NBC source said “We’re very optimistic a deal will be worked out.”

There are some monkey wrenches to contend with, however. First, one of Friday Night Light’s stars, Jason Katims, will be doing the Parenthood pilot on NBC. If that’s picked up, he could either try and do both shows if his schedule allows, or he’ll have to make a choice about which show to do.

FNL’s director, Jeffrey Reiner, is working on an NBC pilot called “Trauma,” so there’s buzz about his availabilty to work on Friday Night Lights if he’s otherwise tied up with another series.

DirecTV subscribers got the first look at Friday Night Lights’ season 3 premiere, while non-satellite subscribers will have to wait until February to catch the series on NBC.