Chris Fowler, Lee Corso, and Kirk Herbstreit by Ed Winters/ESPN
Break out the Spirit Meter and don the head of your school’s mascot, because ESPN’s College GameDay celebrates its 150th remote edition tomorrow (Saturday, Nov. 10, at 10 am/ET).Host Chris Fowler and analysts Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit will be broadcasting from Williamstown, Massachusetts, where Williams College hosts Amherst College in a New England Small College Athletic Conference rivalry. It’s the first time the college-football traveling "studio" show will broadcast from a Division III school.“We’re always looking for unique sites,” says ESPN spokesman Mike Humes. “We go to sites with compelling storylines, and this rivalry is one of the best.” Saturday's game marks the 122nd time the two schools have met on the football field.Remote editions of College GameDay began on Nov. 13, 1993, in South Bend, Indiana, when No. 1 Florida State visited No. 2 Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish defeated the Seminoles 31-24. The University of Florida has...
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Raheem Brock and Tom Brady by John Sommers II/Reuters
CBS scored another ratings touchdown on Sunday, pulling in 33.8 million viewers for the New England Patriots 24-20 victory over the Indianapolis Colts. The "Battle of Unbeatens" becomes the most-watched program of the 2007-08 season to date. And, according to CBS, it's the largest audience for a Sunday-afternoon regular-season NFL game in the past 20 years! With all due respect to Simon Cowell, Gil Grissom and McDreamy, the Patriots have become TV's most reliable draw. Their Oct. 14 victory over the Cowboys drew 29.1 million viewers, and now NBC has used its flexible scheduling clause to poach their Nov. 18 game against the Buffalo Bills. The game, originally slated for a 1 pm/ET start on CBS, moves to NBC's Sunday Night Football (8:15 pm/ET).
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Richard Jefferson, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Grant Hill, Cuttino Mobley and David Lee on Family Feud by NBA Photos/Getty Images
One hundred people were surveyed and the top reason to watch Family Feud next week is: It's NBA Players vs. NBA Mothers Week (Nov. 12-16, syndicated, click here for time and channel in your area).Feud's NBA starting five are Grant Hill (Phoenix Suns), Chris Bosh (Toronto Raptors), Dwight Howard (Orlando Magic), Cuttino Mobley (Los Angeles Clippers), Richard Jefferson (New Jersey Nets) and David Lee (New York Knicks). They'll face off aginst their moms: Janet Hill, Frieda Bosh, Sheryl Howard, Jackie Mobley, Meekness LeCato and Susan Lee, respectively.All prize money will be donated to charity: The hoopsters will give to KaBOOM! (a nonprofit aimed at creating community playgrounds, sports fields and the like for kids), and their moms are playing for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
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Indianapolis Colts vs. New England Patriots by Mike Ehrmann/WireImage.com
It’s a clash of NFL titans on Sunday, when the 7-0 Indianapolis Colts host the 8-0 New England Patriots in what’s already being billed as "the game of the century" (Nov. 4, 4:15 pm/ET, on CBS). The match-up marks the first-ever meeting between two teams with records of 7-0 or better."This game speaks for itself," said CBS announcer Jim Nantz, who will be calling the game alongside Phil Simms. "It’s going to be magnificent, we don’t need to hype it. What you have here is the rivalry of its era."The AFC rivals have played 70 times, with the Patriots leading the series 43-27. Quarterbacks Tom Brady and Peyton Manning have faced off nine times in their careers, with Brady holding a 6-3 edge.The showdown is a rematch of last season’s AFC Championship game, where the Colts beat the Patriots, 38-34, and advanced to Super Bowl XLI. Sunday’s game "will be every bit as exciting and high scoring as in January," Nantz predicts. CBS will debut new "FreezeCam" techno...
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Peter Gilmore courtesy New York Road Runners
For America’s best distance runners, the road to Beijing loops through Central Park on Saturday with the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in the men’s marathon. The top three finishers will qualify for the Summer Olympics next August in China. The 26.2-mile race begins in Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center – shown live on the Today show (Nov. 3, 7:35 am/ET on NBC) – and after a brief trip through midtown (right past the TV Guide offices!), the runners will enter Central Park for five five-mile loops. The race will stream live at nbcolympics.com and a televised highlight show airs later Saturday at 2 pm/ET, on NBC. Though marathons can be unpredictable, the pre-race favorite is Meb Keflezighi, who won the silver medal at the Athens Olympics in 2004. Others to watch include:• Abdi Abdirahman, who earlier this year won U.S. 10,000-meter titles on both the track and the roads.• Defending Olympic Trials champion Alan Culpepper won his third national cross-country t...
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Jimmy Eat World courtesy Interscope Records
Alternative rock band Jimmy Eat World and opera singer Placido Domingo have been tapped as musical entertainers for MLS Cup 2007, the championship game for Major League Soccer. Domingo will sing the national anthem and Jimmy Eat World will perform during halftime of the game (Sunday, Nov. 18, noon/ET, ABC).…The Red Sox' World Series celebrations continue tomorrow (Friday, Nov. 2): designated hitter David Ortiz will be on Live With Regis & Kelly (syndicated: click here for time and station) and left-fielder Manny Ramirez will sit down with Jay Leno on The Tonight Show (NBC, 11:35 pm/ET).…ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 will combine to show 29 Arena Football League games in 2008. The season begins Saturday, Mar. 1 with the Dallas Desperados vs. the Georgia Force, and ends with ArenaBowl XXII on Sunday, July 27. Both of those games will be on ABC. Beginning Apr. 14, ESPN2 will air 10 straight weeks of Monday night games.
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Jonathan Papelbon by Jim Rogash/WireImage.com
Boston Red Sox pitcher Jonathan Papelbon will be a guest on Late Show with David Letterman tomorrow night (Oct. 31, 11:35 pm/ET, CBS). Papelbon closed out three of Boston's four wins in their World Series sweep of the Colorado Rockies.The World Series averaged 17.1 million viewers on Fox, an 8 percent increase from last year's Fall Classic. Sunday's Game 4 drew 20.94 million viewers, making it the second-most watched program of the week (behind Dancing With the Stars)....Elsewhere, FIFA, the world-governing body of soccer, has awarded the 2011 Women's World Cup to Germany and the 2014 Men's World Cup to Brazil.
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Nova Marathon Challenge by Joel Laino/PBS
The days are getting shorter, the leaves are falling, and the air is thick with the smell of Bengay. Yes, it’s marathon season. On Saturday, the Olympic Team Trials race will select the three U.S. runners for the event at next summer’s Beijing Games. The following day is the 38th New York City Marathon. NBC will show the Olympic Trials start live on the Today show, at 7:35 am/ET, as well as same-day highlight shows for both races.To get an idea of what goes into preparing for the race, check out tonight’s surprisingly touching episode of PBS’ Nova, titled “Marathon Challenge.” The hour-long show explores both the psychological and physiological challenges of training for the 26.2-mile race. It features a group of 13 nonrunners participating in a 40-week training program for the Boston Marathon. They’re an unimpressive bunch at the start — the group’s coach refers to them as “dog meat” — and they face a variety of obstacles ...
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Kevin Garnett by Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images
The 2007 NBA season opens this week with a quadruple-double: four straight nights of doubleheaders on TNT (Oct. 30 and Nov. 1) and ESPN (Oct. 31 and Nov. 2).Tomorrow night’s opening game sees the Portland Trailblazers face off against the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs (Oct. 30, 8 pm/ET). After that, the Houston Rockets will take on the Los Angeles Lakers at 10:30 pm/ET. ESPN’s coverage on Halloween includes the Dallas Mavericks at the Cleveland Cavaliers (8 pm/ET) and the Seattle SuperSonics at the Denver Nuggets (10:30 pm/ET).On Thursday TNT has the Detroit Pistons at the Miami Heat, plus the Phoenix Suns taking on the Sonics. Friday’s ESPN games are the Washington Wizards at the Boston Celtics, followed by the Suns hosting the Lakers.Changes at the broadcast table include ex-Indiana Pacer Reggie Miller assuming a full-time game-analyst role for TNT, and ESPN’s hiring of former Knicks/Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy as an analyst."I was beginning to thin...
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Eli Manning by Kevin C. Cox/WireImage.com
A different style of football invades London’s Wembley Stadium on Sunday, Oct. 28, when the NFL hosts its first regular-season game outside North America.The matchup between the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins will start at 1 pm/ET (6 o'clock local time in London) on Fox, but will only be aired in scheduled regional markets. Thom Brennaman, Daryl Johnston and sideline reporter Tony Siragusa will call the game. ESPN’s Rachel Nichols will be in England the entire weekend providing updates and conducting interviews with players for SportsCenter and Sunday NFL Countdown."Our goal is to translate America's obsession into the world's passion," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said at a sports business conference in London yesterday. If this game is a success, the league will schedule more regular-season games abroad next year. — Reporting by Rob Moynihan
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