TVSquad

John Madden is done. NBC announced today that Madden, perhaps the most famous broadcaster in football history apart from Howard Cosell, is retiring from the booth after covering the NFL for 30 years, winning 16 Emmys and the admiration of football friends everywhere.

Madden addressed listeners this morning on KCBS in San Francisco about the decision, which was obviously not easy for him. "I decided to retire," he said. "Heck I can't even say it. It's tough, not because I'm not sure it's the right time. I really feel strongly this is the right time. I'm just going to miss everything about it because I enjoyed it so much."

Football is in Madden's blood. He's a Hall of Fame coach, winning the Super Bowl with the Raiders in 1977, a college stand-out offensive tackle from California Polytechnic State University, and his Madden NFL is a perennial best-selling video game on multiple platforms. He joined ABC's Monday Night Football crew in 2002, and spent the past three years on NBC's Sunday Night Football.

Two-and-a-half years ago, I asked the (admittedly) dumb question, "Could Frank Caliendo take John Madden's place?" At the time, my contention was that Caliendo's loopy Madden impression was no longer that far off reality, and that Madden had become such a caricature of himself that Frank could have stepped in and no one would have known the difference.

If NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol had a sense of daring, he could have tried that experiment this Sunday night, as Madden is going to sit out NBC's broadcast of the Buccaneers-Seahawks game in Tampa. The week off was Ebersol's idea; last night's game was in San Diego, making a cross-country trek for Madden and his famous Cruiser (he doesn't fly) right before a week off, as NBC defers to the World Series.

Today was the very last day of the press tour here in Beverly Hills. It was "TCA Day," with members of the association (including me) going to the Warner Brothers lot to visit the sets of ER, Pushing Daisies, and Chuck, where we spoke to cast members and producers (Oh, we went to the set of America's Best Dance Crew, but let's just forget I mentioned that one). Then we bused it over to the Fox lot, where Joss Whedon showed us around the set of Dollhouse, and the entire cast of King of the Hill gave a table read of their 250th episode. All this fun will be in upcoming posts later this summer.

Despite some of the griping you may have seen from me, it's been lots of fun. It's just a very tiring experience. Case in point: On Monday, NBC decided to close out the press conference portion of the tour by having us sit through ten panels, five of them after lunch. Here's a wrap-up post that goes over some of what went on yesterday that I haven't already covered.

When it comes to the blue and gold, NBC is enduringly loyal. The network has agreed to a new five year deal with The University of Notre Dame to televise the college football games from the venerable college team, even though the Fighting Irish have not been a winning powerhouse for the past few years.

In fact, the Irish have been getting its butt kicked by the likes of USC, Michigan, Ohio State and the entire SEC regularly of late. Nevertheless, when it comes to Nielsen ratings, pleasing the advertisers and making the legion of Notre Dame fans happy, NBC steps up.

The new five-year agreement will give NBC the rights to televise all Irish home games through 2015. That's seven from Notre Dame Stadium and an extra home game not from the ND Stadium to air in primetime.

Remember Susan Saint James? She was honored this week with a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, and it's about time, I say. The 61-year-old actress is pictured here, with husband Dick Ebersol.

California First Lady Maria Shriver was on hand to compliment Saint James for her decades of volunteer work to support the Special Olympics and people with disabilities.

Saint James told ET, "When your name gets called, it's indelible, it's permanent. It's just a compliment of the highest order."

So let's go back a few years to honor this talented actress (this is where David Letterman starts stroking his chin and the picture gets fuzzy)...