By Ryan

The NFL is playing a game tonight, and it actually counts for something! The Tennessee Titans take on the Super Bowl XLIII champion Pittsburgh Steelers in Heinz Field. It’s the first regular-season game for NBC’s new broadcast team of Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth, following the retirement of John Madden. Other national TV games of note is the Sunday night matchup at Lambeau Field with Jay Cutler playing in his first regular-season game as a Chicago Bear, taking on the Green Bay Packers. And on Monday night, ESPN has a doubleheader with Terrell Owens making his Buffalo Bills debut against Tom Brady, returning from a season-ending knee injury, and the New England Patriots, followed by LaDainian Tomlinson and the San Diego Chargers taking on the Oakland Raiders, who are probably going to be bad.

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Categories: Sports, TV News & Program Updates by Cubicle QB
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Tags: CBS, ESPN, Football, FOX, NBC, NFL, Ryan, Sports, TV News & Program Updates

By Ryan

Prepared for some collegiate pigskin? There are 28 games over the next five days on all of ESPN/ABC’s TV, radio, web and mobile media properties. Fifteen of the top 25 teams are in action on ESPN networks this weekend, including No. 3 Oklahoma, No. 5 Alabama, No. 6 Ohio State, No. 7 Virginia Tech and No. 8 Mississippi.

ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU And ABC College Football Kickoff Week Schedule Sept. 3-7

Thursday, Sept. 3

South Carolina at N.C. State, 7pm ET, ESPN

North Texas at Ball State, 7:30pm ET, ESPNU

Oregon at Boise State, 10:15pm ET, ESPN

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Categories: Sports, TV News & Program Updates by Cubicle QB
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Tags: ABC, college football, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, Football, Ryan, Sports, TV News & Program Updates

By Ryan

The Sunday of Memorial Day weekend has become the best day of the year for auto racing. There’s the one IndyCar race people still watch, followed by the early evening NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte, N.C. Here’s the TV schedule of events for both races:

Indianapolis 500

Sunday, May 24 on ABC

12pm ET — Prerace Show. The one-hour prerace show will include interviews with many of the 33 starting drivers as well as four special features, including a look at the roller-coaster year of polesitter Helio Castroneves; the special relationship between Danica Patrick and her father; the “Super Team” of Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti; and the Allure of Indy — why drivers will risk everything just to be able to compete in the Indy 500:

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Categories: Sports, TV News & Program Updates by Cubicle QB
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Tags: ABC, Auto Racing, Coca-Cola 600, FOX, Idianapolis 500, IndyCar, NASCAR, Ryan, Sports, Sprint Cup Series

By Ryan

For the third year in a row, we’ll be doing our live blog of the Scripps National Spelling Bee Finals. My colleague johnnysweeptheleg (renowned for his blogging of Lost and The Office on this site) and I have a good time covering this event, and there’s always some good-natured ribbing of the bee geeks participants. The Bee finals are Thursday, May 28 at 8pm ET, live on ABC.

This year, we’re going to do something different — the whole live blog will be done via Twitter, not here on the Channel Guide Magazine blog. We’ll be sending out a flurry of tweets full of our own unique perspective of the hot and heavy spelling bee action!

To join in on the live Twitter, follow us: Ryan (ChannelGuideRAB) and johnnysweeptheleg (BtotheD)

And if you have your own snarky things to say during the bee, we’d be happy to read them! To have us follow your tweets during the bee, send an @reply to ChannelGuideRAB and BtotheD!

Categories: Sports by Cubicle QB
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Tags: ABC, Johnnysweeptheleg, Live Blog, Ryan, Scripps National Spelling Bee, Sports, Twitter

By Ryan

Darnell is getting ready for Career Day at Dodge’s school, the day in which the dads come in to talk about their jobs. Crab Man is all ready for his presentation on crabs, but Dodge wants to have his real dad there instead of his stepdad. The problem: Joy hasn’t told Dodge that Earl isn’t his real dad. Since Earl ruined Dodge’s 2005 Career Day (he stole some X-Ray equipment as posed as a doctor), he goes to school to talk about his career as Chief List Maker/List Doer. Some of Dodge’s classmates wonder why Dodge doesn’t spend weekends with Earl, which gets Earl wondering who really is Dodge’s father. Joy can’t seem to keep her stories straight: Was it the guy at the Ronnie James Dio concert or the guy selling nachos at the Molly Hatchet show? She finally admits that Little Chubby (Norm MacDonald), the son of the late Big Chubby (Burt Reynolds), is Dodge’s real dad.
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Categories: Comedy by Cubicle QB
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Tags: Comedy, My Name Is Earl, NBC, Recap, Ryan

By Ryan

The investigative news series Inside Probe with Geraldo Rivera continues its story on the 2001 disappearance of Crab Shack owner Ernie Belcher. Earl and Randy have been cleared of any involvement in Ernie’s disappearance, so the investigation is back to square one. It’s soon discovered that there were reports of bright lights in the sky and UFO sightings on the night Ernie vanished. As they stick the probe even deeper inside, Geraldo learns that Ernie was big into the Civil War — he was profoundly loyal to the Central, the little-known neutral side of which Camden County was a part, that couldn’t decide whether to join the North or the South. Ernie continued to fly the flag of the Central on the Crab Shack’s roof, even though it was unpopular. It’s also discovered that Ernie was big into underground kinky sex, and was proprietor of the site ErniesFetishShack.com. (It does not exist. We checked.) Ernie also had hidden cameras all over the women’s restroom of the Crab Shack.

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Categories: Comedy by Cubicle QB
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Tags: Comedy, Inside Probe, My Name Is Earl, NBC, Recap, Ryan

By Ryan

Features on the May 5 (7pm ET) edition of ESPN’s sports newsmagazine series E:60:

The Darkest Day in Polo — A few weeks ago, the genteel world of polo was rocked when 21 prized horses died during the U.S. Open Polo Championship in Wellington, Fla., the Super Bowl of the sport. Lechuza Caracas, one of eight teams in competition, was one win away from the semifinals and favored to win until the team’s horses became ill and started falling to the ground one by one. Spectators watched in horror as veterinarians, players, grooms and total strangers worked together in vain to try to save the horses. E:60‘s Rachel Nichols talks with witnesses and participants, including an exclusive on-camera interview with the team manager of Lechuza Caracas, who explains what really happened leading up to polo’s most tragic day.

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Categories: Sports, TV News & Program Updates by Cubicle QB
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Tags: baseball, Bowling, Dustin Pedroia, E:60, ESPN, Jason Belmonte, Polo, Ryan, Sports, Terrance Haynes, Wrestling

By Ryan

In sort of a throwback to the Camden County COPS episodes from a few seasons back, the investigative news show Inside Probe with Gerardo Geraldo Rivera is in Camden, looking into the mysterious 2001 disappearance of Ernie Belcher, owner of the Crab Shack. Geraldo interviews the various residents of Camden — and two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip — to get their memories of Ernie, trying to piece together the puzzle of his disappearance and narrow down the list of possible suspects. After the police searched Ernie’s office and discovered threatening letters from Randy, the cops arrest Randy and Earl, his suspected accomplice. But two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip gives the boys an airtight alibi, since he went out drinking with them the night of Ernie’s disappearance. But we have to wait until next week’s Inside Probe to find out what happened to Ernie, thanks to network executives not ordering enough episodes … douchebags.

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Categories: Comedy by Cubicle QB
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Tags: Comedy, My Name Is Earl, NBC, Recap, Ryan

By Ryan

For those of you interested (I’m mostly talking to you, degenerate gamblers and C-list celebrities in ugly hats), the Kentucky Derby is this Saturday on NBC. I really can’t tell you anything about this year’s Derby, other than every day this week it seems like some potential favorite has been scratched due to injury. Are there even any horses left in this thing? I Want Revenge as been installed as the 3-1 favorite. I’m taking Papa Clem at 20-1. What the hell. I like his name. He’ll probably have to be put down right on the track.

Here’s some info on NBC’s coverage, with ESPN and even Bravo’s (!) supporting programming after the jump:

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Categories: Sports, TV News & Program Updates by Cubicle QB
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Tags: Bravo, ESPN, Horse Racing, Kentucky Derby, NBC, Ryan, Sports

By Ryan

Features on the Tuesday, April 28 (7pm ET), edition of ESPN’s sports newsmagazine series E:60:

Stephon Marbury Revealed — E:60’s Lisa Salters explores the conflicting sides of Boston Celtics guard Stephon Marbury as he opens up about the most tumultuous chapters of his life. Topics covered include his public divorce with his hometown New York Knicks last winter, his feud with former Knicks coach Isiah Thomas, and his shocking testimony in Thomas’ sexual-harassment trial. More intimate matters are also discussed, leaving Marbury in tears and exposing a side of him hardly anyone has seen.
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Categories: Sports, TV News & Program Updates by Cubicle QB
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Tags: E:60, ESPN, Gregg Valentino, James Stewart, Maria Sharapova, Matthew Stafford, Ryan, Sports, Stephon Marbury