Scott Porter Reacts to “Friday Night Lights” Costars Michael B. Jordan and Jesse Plemons’ Awards Season Success (Exclusive)

Lexi Lane, Abby SternSun, June 7, 2026 at 7:00 PM UTC

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Scott Porter; Michael B. Jordan; Jesse PlemonsCredit: Michael Kovac/Getty; Simon Ackerman/FilmMagic; Earl Gibson III/Deadline via Getty -

Scott Porter reflected on the bond among the Friday Night Lights cast, which remains strong 15 years after the show ended, in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE

"We had an incredible collection of people in our cast, and I'm not saying talent, I'm saying human beings," Porter said

The cast recently reunited for the show's 20th anniversary at the ATX TV Festival, celebrating its lasting legacy across generations

Friday Night Lightscast members are still rooting for each other — even 15 years after the show ended.

Scott Porter, who appeared at MPTF's 2026 NextGen Summer Party at The Aster in Los Angeles on Sunday, May 31, shared exclusively with PEOPLE what it was like watching Michael B. Jordan and Jesse Plemons find success during the most recent awards season.

"One of the coolest moments of the entire awards circuit this year was watching Michael B. walk up on stage to get his award and turn and point to Jesse who is also sitting in the front row because he's also nominated," said Porter, 46, referring to the 2026 Oscars, where Jordan won Best Actor for Sinners and Plemons was nominated in the category for Bugonia.

Michael B. Jordan at the Oscars on March 15, 2026Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty

He added, "We had an incredible collection of people in our [Friday Night Lights] cast, and I'm not saying talent, I'm saying human beings. So to see those two human beings that I'm just so proud of almost like on a brotherly level be up there and getting recognized the way that they do and still find the time to find each other and make sure that they connect, that's what really is all about."

Porter played Jason Street, while Plemons, 38, played Landry Clarke and Jordan, 39, played Vince Howard.

Michael B. Jordan in 'Sinners' (2025); Jesse Plemons in 'Bugonia' (2025)Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures; Atsushi Nishijima/Focus Features

During the interview, Porter said that he can "always cross paths" with his costars, whether it's Plemons or Zach Gilford, as the group still makes an effort to "keep in touch" that he finds "really cool."

"It's not even having to snap right back into who we used to be because we still talk all the time," Porter said. "I was chatting with Jesse earlier in the year. We got lunch with Gaius [Charles]. Zach [Gilford] and I used to live together when we did the show and we still stay in touch and we always cross paths because everybody's working constantly. And so we see each other in passing in all of these towns where all these new shows shoot, we get to still hang out."

Porter also participated in a 20th anniversary reunion for Friday Night Lights at the ATX TV Festival in Austin on May 29. The cast — including Plemons, Connie Britton, Kyle Chandler, Gaius Charles, Brad Leland, Adrianne Palicki, Derek Phillips, Stacey Oristano, Louanne Stephens and Aimee Teegarden — were all in attendance, along with showrunner Jason Katims, director Jeffrey Reiner, and writers David Hudgins and Kerry Ehrin.

The 'Friday Night Lights' cast at ATX TV Festival in May 2026Credit: Drew Doggett | @drew_doggett

The group accepted the 2026 Texas Made Award at the festival, according to CultureMap Austin. Porter recalled that the reunion was "full of elation."

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"People say, 'You can't go home,' but we felt like we did," he said. "We got to just have dinner and lunch together and hang out and walk the streets of the town that we used to work in, that so many of us started our careers in. And it was just incredible to look back. Understand that 20 years ago we did something that I think people feel is pretty special now and has become a legacy show where generations are now handing it down down their family line."

"I see so many kids that say, 'Hey, I just watched this show just here. My dad told me I had to. And we had the best time of our life.' And the fact that family connections happen because of this show, it's deeper than anything I've ever done on screen. And that family will always be that for me, my family," Porter continued.

In November 2025, Porter and Gilford posed for a photoshoot for PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive issue.

"The last text I sent to Zach was, 'Isn't it hilarious that they asked us to do this?' " Porter joked during their joint interview.

As for why Porter believes that Friday Night Lights has lived on in people's hearts, he feels that it has been passed down through different generations.

"The show never talks down to the audience," he told PEOPLE. "It asks them to think critically about every single character. I'm just so glad and feel so fortunate that people love the show the way that they do. It feels like a show that gets handed down generationally. I talk to 16-year-olds who have just started watching Friday Night Lights, and they still feel the same about it as people did almost 20 years ago, which is crazy to me."

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Porter, who shares son McCoy, 11, and daughter Clover, 8, with wife Kelsey Mayfield, said that his kids haven't watched the show yet though.

He said, "I think my son's got a couple of years. I think once he's in middle school, we might as well watch something like Friday Night Lights with him, so I can have some of those conversations just based on what you see in the show."

on People

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