What Your Television Is Doing This Weekend

By Brian Powell
- Everything begins and ends with the NFL Playoffs this weekend. CBS will feature its last game of the season in the AFC Championship (a contest they dubbed Super Bowl XLI 1/2 earlier in the season) this Sunday at 3PM and FOX will air the NFC Championship game at 6:30 that evening. The number one teams of Jim Nantz/Phil Simms and Joe Buck/Troy Aikman are on the call and will more than certainly mention the names Brady and Favre a good 574 times. That’s just a guesstimate though.
FOX has also announced it’s plans for all of the coverage leading up to Super Bowl XLII, and it’s going to be nauseating for most sports fans. Expect politics, Ryan Seacrest, and as many “American Idol” singers/judges they can trot out before the big game.
- ESPN also did a lovely job of bracketing the NFL Playoffs with a huge slate of college basketball games this weekend. The Leader will feature three teams top 5 teams on Saturday. No. 1 UNC takes on Maryland at 3:30 (ABC, Brent Musburger/Steve Lavin), Clemson is at No. 5 Duke at 6PM (ESPN, Mike Patrick/Fran Fraschilla), and No. 3 Kansas battles Missouri at 8pm (ESPNU, Jon Sundvold/Clay Matvick).
On top of all of the days action, ESPN is also premiering its basketball version of College Gameday in Gainesville, Florida before the Gators take on Kentucky at 9PM (Dan Shulman/Jay Bilas/Erin Andrews). The show starts at 8PM and features the commentary of Rece Davis, Jay Bilas, Digger Phelps, and Hubert Davis. This Saturday’s installment is the first of eight trips ESPN plans to take to universities around the country. All their stops:
January 19: Kentucky at Florida
January 26: Creighton at So. Illinois (ESPN2)
February 2: Arizona at UCLA
February 9: Georgetown at Louisville
February 16: Michigan State at Indiana
February 23: Tennessee at Memphis
March 1: Kansas State at Kansas
March 8: North Carolina at Duke
- Finally I wanted to share a video that got me pumped up for the Chargers-Pats game this Sunday. Bill Belichick provides the Chargers some bulletin board material for this weekend in the most boring way possible. The coach apparently doesn’t like Disco music:

↵