TVSquad

Is anyone else out there as excited about Season 3 of Friday Night Lights, which premieres Oct. 1, as I am? Apparently, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning might be, since he's a big fan of the show.

(And if you're a true Colts fan, you'd better watch too -- especially if you're a Nielsen viewer. Or else, um, you might jinx him and cause the team to lose the Super Bowl.)

As you may have heard, FNL will air exclusively on DirecTV this fall (and repeat on NBC in early 2009. Yeah, it's a pain if you don't get DirecTV (like me), but subscribers will be happy to learn they'll be able to watch commercial-free.

Last night I went to a taping of the second installment of Idol Gives Back at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. This year the charities that benefited were Malaria No More, Children's Defense Fund, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, Children's Health Fund, and Save the Children.

Keep in mind, there will be spoilers. It's not like I found out the secret to Lost, but I figured I would still give fair warning. The show will air on Wednesday April 9th at 7:30 pm ET / PT. For what happened at the taping and in the press room, read on after the jump. And check back for Jason's review Wednesday night.

Annie's review of last Saturday's SNL pretty much encapsulated how I felt about it; it was above average, especially if you understood some of the jokes directed at guest host Peyton Manning. Since I'm a football fan, that was no problem; the NCAA sketch where the studio guys kept saying certain players "pulled a Peyton Manning" was funny to me because, until he won the Super Bowl last month, Peyton had a bit of a choker's reputation.

Anyway, the funniest bit of the entire episode was the phony United Way PSA, showing Manning "helping" a bunch of kids. Even watching it today on NBC.com, I couldn't help but laugh when Peyton not only checks the play at the line of scrimmage, like he does on every play he runs in the pros, but then he whips the ball at his receivers, whether they're ready or not. When he knocks them over, he calls them "losers;" he's so angry at one kid, he banishes the boy to a Port-O-Let so he can think about the error of his ways.

(S32E16) I know nothing about football. I know nothing about Peyton Manning. He's an athlete, right? Okay. I didn't expect much from him, since the majority of sports-related guests of the past have done poorly. To my surprise, Peyton did relatively well. I think this was partially due to the fact that the writing did not demand too much from him. Although this was a smart move to not make Peyton look like an idiot, it resulted in a mediocre episode.

• At 8, FOX has a new episode of Cops.
• TLC has a new Moving Up at 8.
• Nickelodeon has two new episodes of Ned's Declassified starting at 8.
• CBS has March Madness coverage til around 9 or so.
• At 9, FOX has a new America's Most Wanted.
• CNBC has a new Suze Orman Show at 9.
• Also at 9: Hallmark has Teri Polo in the new movie Love Is A Four Letter Word.
• At 10, TLC has a new Trading Spaces.
• HGTV has a new Design on a Dime at 10.
• At 11:30, NBC has a new Saturday Night Live, with Peyton Manning and Carrie Underwood.
• At midnight, FOX has a new Talk Show With Spike Feresten.

Check your local TV listings for more.

The Federal Communications Commission got 150 complaints about the content of this year's big game. They centered on two events: one was the phallic imagery generated by Prince during his halftime show (pic on the right). Can you guess the other one?

Yup, that Snickers ad with the two guys kissing (Snickers has since pulled the commercial).

The Smoking Gun has the documents, and some of the complaints are hilarious. One viewer says that Prince's giant penis guitar shadow had a traumatic effect on his son: "[my son] hoped to be a quarterback and now he will turn out gay...thanks CBS for turning my son GAY." Another viewer said "God knows I didn't turn on the Super Bowl expecting to be tricked into watching gay sex," which makes me wonder where he usually goes to not be tricked into watching gay sex.

I wonder what these people think about football players slapping each other on the rear after good plays, and then taking showers together after a game. NAKED!

[via TV Tattle]

Peyton Manning just has to do everything Tom Brady does, doesn't he? First, he won a Super Bowl and an SB MVP award, just like Brady (though Brady's won 2 SB MVPs and 3 rings). Now he's decided to celebrate his 31st birthday by hosting Saturday Night Live on March 24. Brady hosted the show two years ago, and did a pretty decent job of it, all things considered.

Manning should do an even better job, since he's already shown a pretty good sense of humor in the myriad commercials he's done over the years. I mean, what football fan didn't love it when he exhorts a deli guy to "Cut that meat!" in a MasterCard commercial? Or when he donned a clever disguise to extol his own virtues in a Sprint ad? Well, most of them didn't. But you can't deny that he'll do a serviceable job on SNL. Although, as far as athlete sketches go, nothing can beat the Joe Montana "I'll be upstairs masturbating" moment from 20 years ago.

(By the way, I'm not a Patriots fan; I'm a Giants fan. I think I'm just jealous because we got the wrong Manning, that's all.)

[via Deadspin]

So, what do you think it is?

Was it the debut episode of this season's American Idol? Was it the season opener of 24? Or maybe the half-season-ender of Lost a few months ago? The season opener of Grey's Anatomy?

Nope. The highest-rated TV show of the season so far was the third episode of Ghost Whisperer! OK, I'm kidding. The actual highest-rated show after the jump.