Despite the embarrassing defeat suffered by his beloved USC Trojans at the hands of Stanford Saturday, TV Guide gossip guru Michael Ausiello managed to crawl out from under the covers long enough to provide us with some Friday Night Lights news and spoilers in his weekly weekly column. Appreciated, Mike!

We don't give away any Friday Night Lights spoilers on our home page for those of you who want to remain in the dark and out of the "lights" until Friday night, follow the jump to learn more about what two characters who were quite underused in the premiere - Smash and Jason - are up to this week...

Question: Sorry about the USC loss. Speaking of football, how were ratings for Friday Night Lights? Any scoop for us athletic supporters?
TV Guide: It averaged a so-so six million viewers, but the good news is it tied for first with CBS' Moonlight in the all-important 18-49 demo. All told, it did about as good as it needed to — and that's about all we could ask for. Scoop-wise, Smash Williams is going to visit a prospective college and get a little too cozy with one of the player's lady friends. And Jason Street is going to explore uncharted territory: Internet dating! I hear his first potential hookup is into some kinky stuff.

Question: After watching Friday Night Lights' premiere, I think Stanford's win on Saturday was the only thing that helped me recover from "the big plot twist." Do you have even the smallest scoop to reassure everyone that this story isn't as horrible as everyone thinks it is?
TV Guide: I could've sworn we covered this last week. If you skimmed past that part, here's the CliffsNotes version: The end (Landry-Tyra forever intertwined) will justify the means (cheap plot twist).

And if you have any doubts that Landry will eventually do the right thing, let the title of Episode 9 erase them for you: "The Confession." Enough said.

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.