TV Page 15 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

<em>The Daily Show</em> Takes Down The NCAA
With the NCAA tournament at a close, and the recent decision allowing Northwestern football players to vote on forming a union, Jon Stewart and The Daily Show decided to tackle an issue near and dear to our hearts. Never has the exploitation of teenagers been funnier. ...

Real Or Fake, Stephen Colbert's <em>Late Show</em> Is Gonna Be Awesome
Back when Stephen Colbert was on The Daily Show, he also used to do radio-ad voiceover work for extra money. I was a junior copywriter working on a shit-ass cell-phone account when our agency hired Colbert (who worked for scale at the time) to enter a recording studio and do a series of 60-second re...

LaMarcus Aldridge Keeps Appearing On <em>Portlandia</em>
The sketch above—starring the Portland Trail Blazers—is set to appear in tomorrow night's episode of Portlandia. Inasmuch as I am the exact target audience for this bonkers cross-promotion between a professional basketball team and an IFC sketch comedy show, I approve....

How To Fix <em>Justified</em>, Which Is Not Broken
The wise-ass Kentucky crime drama Justified had the good fortune to premiere in the spring of 2010, Tuesdays at 10 p.m., which means it accidentally got the best possible lead-in, even if that lead-in aired on another channel: the final season of Lost, over on ABC. ...

Flowchart: How To Know Which <em>The Returned</em> You Are Talking About
If you want to start a really confusing conversation with someone, ask them if they have ever heard of The Returned....

Keith Olbermann's Tribute To David Letterman Is Great
Keith Olbermann is never better than when he's talking about someone he respects (perhaps because there aren't many of them). Last night was one such occasion, when Olbermann devoted an entire segment to David Letterman's announcement of his impending retirement. "All I keep thinking," Olbermann sai...

David Letterman Announces His 2015 Retirement From The <em>Late Show</em>
The big news was spoiled by—of all people—R.E.M.'s bass player, but here it is straight from the horse's mouth: David Letterman has revealed that he will retire following the expiration of his contract in 2015. ...

Die Already, King Joffrey
This Sunday, 114 million global HBO subscribers and roughly 250 million web-savvy HBO non-subscribers will join hands and avail themselves of the fourth-season premiere of Game of Thrones, a quasi-medieval Prestige Cable Network Battle of the T's and A's with way more T's, A's, leering ultraviolence...

Wale And The ESPN Assignment Desk: A Four-Tweet Comedy
Rapper Wale is helping in Washington's courtship of DeSean Jackson, the two of them hitting the club last night along with Pierre Garcon and DeAngelo Hall. Wale posted the above photo to his Instagram, and ESPN took notice....

Mark Cuban: "Greedy" NFL Is 10 Years From Implosion
In the worlds of both sports and television, the NFL is a behemoth. But is there something uniquely and grossly profitable about pro football that it can continue to grow indefinitely, or has it hit its ceiling? Mavericks owner Mark Cuban thinks the end is nigh....

Cool Site Lets You Explore The IMDB Ratings Of Your Favorite TV Shows
For lovers of television and charts, Graph TV—a clever interactive tool built by Kevin Wu—let's you visually explore the ratings of TV shows in the IMDB database. Over on the site itself, you can scroll over the dots for the titles and scores of individual episodes; the regression lines show the tre...

"I GAVE YOU A THUMB'S UP!" Providence Live TV Report Goes Poorly
Here you have WJAR sports guy Frank Carpano trying to deliver a live report on the Big East championship game for Providence's NBC affiliate. Yeah, there are some technical difficulties, but it's Frank's enraged thumb's up that we're laughing hardest about....

America Hates Male Nipples: FCC Viewer Complaints About The Super Bowl
As we do every year, we submitted a FOIA request to the FCC for all viewer complaints about the Super Bowl. What would this year bring? Anti-Coke bigots? Richard Sherman haters? Nah. But some folks were really upset about the Red Hot Chili Peppers' nipples....

Reporter Talking Sports Has Best Reaction When He Realizes He's Live
Tom Yazwinski of Q13 FOX in Seattle clearly didn't know that the newscast had sent it over to him for a preview of his report on mudslides. He was talking about the Rangers—Texas or New York?—with someone off-camera....

Fake Chef Fools Midwest Morning Shows, Makes Reporters Eat Gross Food
Over the holidays, Keith Guerke appeared on five morning shows in Wisconsin and Illinois to promote his new cookbook and prepare some meals made from leftovers. One little problem: Chef Keith doesn't know how to cook....

One Person In America Was Offended By Richard Sherman
Those post-NFC Championship days were heady times, a nation torn apart by Seahawks corner Richard Sherman being loud on television. But how many Americans were so upset, so scandalized by Sherman's actions that they actually took the time to complain? One person from Arkansas....

Sister Lift: Confessions Of A Former Pairs Skater
Every four years, Chris Schleicher experiences PTSD. His trigger? The Winter Olympics....

CBS's NFL Deal Means More Phil Simms, The Return Of Saturday Football
The long-rumored (and yet long-denied by the NFL) Thursday night package has finally been sold. It's a strange semi-partnership between CBS and the NFL Network, and it promises quite the repercussions for your viewing experience....

Why USA Bobsled Needs Lolo Jones
Earlier this week, to the surprise of many, Lolo Jones was named to the Olympic bobsled team, despite having only been in the sport for a few years. The teammates she beat out and many independent observers believe it's a conspiracy on the part of USA Bobsled and NBC. Jones is there not because she'...