Friday Night Lights’ Lyla Moving To Washington

Minka Kelly has been cast as the lead of the CW’s drama pilot Body Politic. She is joined by Jason Dohring, who also been cast in the pilot. Body Politic, from CBS Paramount, is a look at Washington politics through the eyes of optimistic up-and-coming staffers. Kelly will play Hope, an all-American girl who leaves her life in Michigan after the death of her mother and heads to D.C., where her long-lost dad, Senator Webster, has just been appointed Attorney General, and takes a job on his staff. Dohring will play a reporter with the Washington Post.

For the Friday Night Lights fans whose hearts started racing, Kelly’s new role is not an sign that the show is not coming back. Negotiations between NBC and DirecTV are still going on, and insiders are optimistic that the show will return for a fourth season. But given the fact that Kelly’s character on the show, Lyla, graduated from high school this season and is off to college (or the rodeo), she is not going to be a regular next season but will return for a multiepisode arc if Friday Night Lights clinches a fourth-season pickup.