TVSquad

Things are not going well for Notre Dame head football coach Charlie Weis. He's in the midst of a rough season, not likely to make a bowl game, and rumors are rampant that he will be fired after a five-year-term that has not brought the university a national championship. The number one name on the lips of everyone to replace Weis is ESPN analyst, and Super Bowl-winning head coach, Jon Gruden. However, this morning ESPN locked up Gruden with an extension on his current contract which expands his responsibilities as an ESPN talking head.

In addition to sticking with the ESPN Monday Night Football color commentary role -- in which he's pretty much been Mr. Enthusiasm -- Gruden will be working the NFL Draft, the Pro Bowl, Super Bowl week, and on radio the Rose Bowl and the BCS game. Basically, if Gruden is talking football, he's doing it on ESPN air.

Now regular Squad hoppers know I'm no drooling American Idol watcher, so maybe you think my opinions on this show are worth less than the U.S. dollar injected with swine flu.

But this move to bring in Ellen DeGeneres, a talk show host, actress and comedian, screams of another move in the world of TV commentating. A move that seemed well reasoned enough but went down in a glorious ball of blue and orange flames on live television.

Comedian and long time TV fixture Dennis Miller's very short stint as the color commentator for ABC's Monday Night Football screams of similarities louder than that guy in the Edvard Munch painting watching the Orson Welles sex tape. Great, Miller's voice is back in my head again. Thanks cha cha, I mean, Ellen.

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.

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.

Boom! Faster than you can say, "Tough actin' Tinactin," NFL Hall of Famer John Madden, the legendary voice of Monday Night Football and the creator of EA Sports video game Madden NFL Football, has decided to take himself out of the game. Madden's retiring from broadcasting. He'll be leaving NBC's Football Game of the Week as the color commentator; Al Michaels is continuing at the play by play voice.

The fact that Madden has retired at 73 is not really a surprise. This is the same guy that walked away from the Oakland Raiders head coaching position (when it still was a prestigious gig) after winning a Super Bowl and while he was still a young man.

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.

Here are the weekly cable ratings, by number of viewers.

1. Monday Night Football (ESPN)
2. Baseball - Indians/Yankees Game 3 (TBS)
3. Baseball - Indians/Yankees Game 2 (TBS)
4. Baseball - Indians/Yankees Game 1 (TBS)
5. Baseball - Angels/Red Sox Game 2 (TBS)
6. Baseball - Angels/Red Sox Game 1 (TBS)
7. Baseball - Cubs/Diamondbacks Game 1 (TBS)
8. Baseball - Cubs/Diamondbacks Game 3 (TBS)
9. WWE Monday Night RAW (USA)
10. Baseball - Angels/Red Sox Game 3 (TBS)

Here are the weekly cable ratings, by number of viewers.

1. Monday Night Football (ESPN)
2. Hannah Montana (Disney)
3. WWE Monday Night RAW - 10pm (USA)
4. Burn Notice (USA)
5. WWE Monday Night RAW - 9pm (USA)
6. College Football (ESPN)
7. Freaky Friday (Disney)
8. Holes (Disney)
9. Saving Grace (TNT)
10. Cory in the House (Disney)

1. Monday Night Football (ESPN)
2. College Football: Texas vs. Iowa (ESPN)
3. College Football: Georgia vs. Virginia Tech (ESPN)
4. College Football: Florida State vs. UCLA (ESPN)
5. Sportscenter (ESPN)
6. College Football: Texas A&M vs. California (ESPN)
7. College Football: Navy vs. Boston College (ESPN)
8. The Funniest Commercials of 2006 (TBS)
9. Monday Night Countdown (ESPN)
10. Pirates of the Caribbean (USA)

1. Monday Night Football (ESPN)
2. The Closer (TNT)
3. WWE Monday Night RAW - Mon, 10pm (USA)
4. WWE Monday Night RAW - Mon, 9pm (USA)
5. SpongeBob SquarePants - Sat, 9:30am (Nickelodeon)
6. Santa Baby (ABC Family)
7. SpongeBob SquarePants - Sat, 9am (Nickelodeon)
8. Fairly Odd Parents - Sun, 10am (Nickelodeon)
9. Fairly Odd Parents - Sat, 10am (Nickelodeon)
10. SpongeBob SquarePants - Thurs, 5pm (Nickelodeon)

1. Monday Night Football (ESPN)
2. Flavor of Love 2 (VH-1)
3. SpongeBob SquarePants - Sat, 9:30am (Nickelodeon)
4. Sportscenter - Mon (ESPN)
5. WWE Monday Night RAW - 10pm (USA)
6. Fairly Odd Parents - Sat, 10am (Nickelodeon)
7. WWE Monday Night RAW - 9pm (USA)
8. SpongeBob SquarePants - Sat, 9am (Nickelodeon)
9. SpongeBob SquarePants - Sun, 9am (Nickelodeon)
10. SpongeBob SquarePants - Sun, 9:30am (Nickelodeon)

If you're from New England (or the past few years a football fan in general), you know that New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick isn't exactly a fashion plate. He always seems to wear the same thing, and looks kinda frumpy (no offense). But he really doesn't seem to mind it. He's not really the kind of guy who cares about looks.

That might change this Monday, October 30, on ESPN. That's when the cast of ABC's Ugly Betty will make an appearance on Monday Night Football and give Belichick a makeover. The people from the fictional Mode magazine on the show will do some Photoshop work on Belichick and turn him into Tom Brady.

I have no idea what this mean. Are they just going to take a picture of Belichick, click here and there and change him into Brady, or is it more involved than that, with Belichick and Brady actually involved? I guess we'll have to tune in to find out. The segment will air at 7pm.

1. Monday Night Football (ESPN)
2. Halloweentown (Disney)
3. SpongeBob SquarePants - Sat, 9:30am (Nickelodeon)
4. WWE Monday Night RAW - 10pm (USA)
5. SpongeBob SquarePants - Sat, 9am (Nickelodeon)
6. College Football - Auburn vs. South Carolina (ESPN)
7. WWE Monday Night RAW - 9pm (USA)
8. Monday Night Countdown (ESPN)
9. Fairly Odd Parents - Sat, 10am (Nickelodeon)
10. Nip/Tuck (FX)

Well, it's been a great 36 years, ABC, but, as Jonathon reported the other day, like a middle-aged man with a mid-life crisis dumping his faithful wife for the hot young secretary, Monday Night Football is running off with a new love - ESPN. Tonight's game between the New England Patriots and New York Jets marks the long-running sports juggernaut's last hurrah on ABC. Next season, if you want your Monday Night Football, you'll have to shell out the bucks for cable to watch it over on ESPN. The game itself isn't any big deal -- the Jets are long since out of the playoffs, but I imagine some people are watching for old times' sake.  

He'll be singing a new version of "I Like It, I Love It" during halftime game highlights. No, not Jimmy Kimmel, I'm talking about singer Tim McGraw! Kimmel will be doing monologues during halftime.

So now we'll have McGraw, Kimmel, and The Rolling Stones on the Monday Night Football broadcast. And I never thought I'd write a sentence like that.