TVSquad

By the time you read this the most important part of today's inaugural shebang will be over and the pomp and circumstance will be in full swing. Being such an important event for both America and the world, second only to the season finales of American Idol, every single media outlet known to man is covering every single minute of the day. Heck, I hear Spice is even covering this with a bunch of naked women correspondents in the crowd at the Mall (NOTE: That's a joke. Do not rampage around the area looking for these naked women.)

Because there are so many places to watch these festivities I would like to know where you are watching them from and who, if anyone, you are viewing them with. Myself, I'm dividing my time watching it on television with my wife and 2-year-old twins and via Internet (CBS.com) as I work from home. I know that my compatriots at the office are watching it via laptop hookup on the video conference screen.

So, let us know. And, if you're watching the ceremonies on one of the big Jumbotrons in Washington DC we'd like to hear from you.

When I'm not pumping out my latest TV rant for the ol' Squad here, I write pretty infrequently for another blog with some old college roomies called The Suite Spot. It's really nothing more than a bunch of disgruntled twentysomething males talking about whatever we want.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, my buddy Keith wrote something that astounded me: he's canceled his cable TV service. And not just cable - I mean everything. Basic service too. The man is TV-less.

Wha?!? Just how the heck can a red-blooded American male say no more to cable TV? Good-bye ESPN? So long crappy late night soft-core porn? Farewell Desperate Hou... wait, nevermind. That one sounds great, but you get my point.

Is Keith still watching TV? Sure, tons of it. But he's doing something that many of us only use as a supplement to our normal TV viewing. He's watching everything online.

Tonight marks the "fall finale" of Jericho. It's a term we've been hearing a lot this season (Lost has used it in their advertising too), and it looks like the web and web surfers are the reason shows are taking a break.

CBS' David Poltrack says the reason why Jericho can afford to take a break for two months right in the middle of the season is because they're able to put up enough original content online to satisfy fans and keep things going. Besides being able to watch episodes of the show online, fans can also see interviews with the cast and crew, as well as a special video series titled "Countdown," which gives viewers info about what would happen if a real attack occurred.

What do you think of the break that shows like Jericho and Lost are taking? Do you think it's a good idea? Is it a good idea only because these are serial shows and the break might be a good thing? Would you accept a break like this if it was The Office or CSI? I think we'll see more of this because of the web. I even wonder that someday, the networks might put an episode of a series exclusively online, right in the middle of the season, so they can run a special or something in the show's time slot. That might be an interesting experiment too.

Katie Couric just broke into CBS programming with the shocking news that longtime 60 Minutes journalist Ed Bradley died this morning of leukemia. He was 65.

I use the word shocking because I don't think there was any public indication that Bradley was sick from leukemia.

At the time of his death, Bradley was still working on 60 Minutes, and stories that he was working on still remain to be aired at a later date. He had been with 60 Minutes for 26 years and won several awards, including an Emmy, a Polk, a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and a duPont citation.

Bradley was married to artist Patricia Blanchet.

Sure, he's slowed down a bit (he turns 88 tomorrow!), but Wallace says he has no intention of packing up his awards and leaving his CBS office. NBC even wanted him, but he decided to stay at CBS:

"I'm going to stay here ... there's an understanding that I'm not going to be getting on airplanes and flying all over the world, but there are going to be certain important interviews I will do for 60 Minutes."

The one interview he really wants? President George Bush, who has never agreed to talk to him. Wallace has interviewed every President since JFK, and has written a note to new White House Press Secretary Tony Snow in hopes of getting one with Bush.

I don't think there's anything I look forward to less than this two week period in March when CBS subjects us to non-stop college basketball action. Not the Olympics, not root canal surgery. And it's not even the basketball that bothers me, it's that it's college basketball. I mean, unless you go to the school or went to the school, who gives a *&#%?

And it's one of those events where people who ordinarily have no interest in college basketball all suddenly join in and bet money in various pools. They become pseudo experts, and become obsessed with scores and matchups and who's playing who and when and what happened and what the score is and everything else. And all the other networks have news stories about the games, my local paper covers it as if it's the Super Bowl (it's not, sorry), and everyone just sort of tries to force it down our throats. Ugh.

It's funny, but I don't even watch that much on CBS, now that I think of it (Letterman, maybe one of the Monday night comedies, Survivor), but this two week interruption still bothers me.