TVSquad

There'll be a new face in the Monday Night Football booth this season. Pardon The Interruption's Tony Kornheiser is out after three years and former Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach – and Super Bowl winner -- Jon Gruden, is in. Gruden, who was dumped by the Bucs at the end of last season, has been sitting in on ESPN as a commentator, so this is a logical progression for him, although he does claim that he wants to be a head coach again some time in the future.

That's an interesting notion because usually when a guy gets into the booth, he doesn't get out. Dick Vermeil is one of the few to jump back and forth; John Madden, who retired from NBC less than a month ago, was one who never returned to the sidelines.

At the rate they're going, the 2008 presidential candidates will have made appearances on every kind of TV program before voting day arrives. No show is too insignificant, it seems. (Seriously, if only we could have seen Obama and McCain do the cha-cha on Dancing with the Stars!)

Therefore, it comes as no big shock that on the eve of the election -- Monday, November 3 -- the presidential candidates are going to appear on ESPN's Monday Night Football.

They will be interviewed -- separately on tape -- by half-time anchor Chris "Boomer" Berman. The anticipated time is 10:15 p.m. (ET), but because of the flow of the game, it could be closer to 10:30.

Anyone catch the live broadcast of Costas NOW last night? I was lucky enough to get a few tickets and went to the live taping in Manhattan with my girlfriend. And I really do mean lucky. Not only did we get seated in the front row, but we were seated right in front of all the panelists. Everyone. Joe Buck, Cris Carter, Mitch Albom, Mike Tirico, Michael Wilbon, John McEnroe... the list goes on. And of course, Bob Costas was only a few feet in front of us on stage. For a sports and TV fanatic, it was very impressive. So why am I writing about it? The town hall format of the show covered a lot of hot topics in sports, but there were a couple segments that really stood out because they directly relate to what we're doing here at TV Squad -- blogging and athletes' (or in our case TV celebs, writers, and producers) reactions to the media.

In a development that surprised no one, ESPN has announced that Mike Tirico and Tony Kornheiser will join Joe Theismann in the booth for their version of Monday Night Football, set to debut this fall. Because Kornheiser also co-hosts the popular ESPN show Pardon The Interruption, this means that Tony and his PTI compadre Michael Wilbon will take the show on the road every Monday during the football season, airing the show from the location of that night's game.

So, what happened with Al Michaels? Wasn't he supposed to be doing MNF next year? Well, considering the fact that a) he has also been removed as ABC's number-one NBA announcer (to be replaced by Mike Breen), and b) there have been rumors floating around that he wanted to break his newly-signed ESPN contract and join John Madden on NBC's new Sunday Night broadcast, chances are good that Super Bowl XL was the last game Michaels called in his thirty-year ABC career. No official announcement has come out yet, but expect to see Michaels on the Peacock Network next fall.

More information can be found in this Reuters article, with actual quotes on Michaels from ESPN executives included.