TVSquad

It seems like ESPN has been around forever, doesn't it? Can you even remember a time when there hasn't been an ESPN to turn to for a score or breaking news or updates? I can't. But along with the news ESPN provides, the ESPN brand has expanded to include a bunch of networks, a magazine, restaurants and lots of tchotchkes. But let's just look at the TV shows, shall we? One note: SportsCenter is not included because it's more of a daily news show as opposed to the programs that are more talk and game-oriented. Here's the top ten ESPN created shows, from the worst to the first.

10. Sports Nation
This is a relatively new daily show on ESPN with radio talker Colin Cowherd and Michelle Beadle co-hosting. It's supposedly an interactive program with surveys that include the fans, but all the bells and whistles can't change the fact that Cowherd is an obnoxious know-it-all that dominates the conversation – when they have one. It's new and shiny, but it's a mess.

Rules are meant to be broken... especially for these ten television characters. For them, the rest of the world has one standard to live by and they have another. It makes them interesting and fun to watch... you just wouldn't necessarily want to be the person having to deal with them because they could drive you to distraction. Here's my ten pack of characters who live in a world of their own, according to no rules except their own. From the not-too-bad to the really bad.

10. Patrick Jane, The Mentalist
You would think that as a consultant to the CBI -- California Bureau of Investigation -- Patrick Jane would be compelled to uphold the rules and regulations of the department. However, Jane is a free spirit when it comes to office protocol. He does his own thing. For instance, bugging the office of a CBI higher-up is definitely not kosher. Jane doesn't care; he did it anyway and will probably get away with it.

A U.S. tracking group, the Global Language Monitor, has compiled their sixth annual list of Top 10 Telewords (that is, the words or phrases that were the most influential on television). Topping the list off was "ObamaVision". Despite Obama's recent appearance on the show, I don't think David Letterman's writing staff had anything to do with this one.

The next three words were "Financial Meltdown", "Michael Jackson" and "Susan Boyle". I wonder if that means that the three words are interrelated. Could Susan Boyle have been responsible for MJ's death and the Financial Meltdown? Um ... probably not. Okay, let's move on.

If you tuned in last night -- and before the overnight ratings are even announced, I'm thinking that a lot of you did (taping Lost, like I did) -- you know now that we are down to the American Idol Top 10. These are the ten who will be touring the country doing American Idol concerts later this year and one of these contestants will be the next big AI winner. The next Kelly or Carrie or Clay (oh, wait, he didn't win).

So, who has the best chance and what does he or she have to do to get to the winner's circle? I've a prescription for each one of them -- free, unsolicited advice based on how the judges' view them and, more importantly, how the American public might be rating them.

What is cool? Can you define that thing, that quality that makes certain characters seem like they're more with it than everyone around them? Maybe cool is a state of being, not a thing you can pick up by wearing Armani or drinking Grey Goose or driving a BMW.

As I was looking around the current crop of television shows, I found ten characters who seem to capture the essence of cool -- whether they know it or not. After the jump, we count them down.

Now I know that none of our readers would do anything like this, but apparently there are people out there who just love to download and watch television via BitTorrent. In fact, 50% of BitTorrent activity is apparently the downloading of television shows, with literally millions of downloads for each episode of those top shows. The folks over at TorrentFreak compiled a list of the Top 10 BitTorrented television shows for the week of May 25 - June 1.

I'm not surprised at all to see shows like The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Lost and Battlestar Galactica among the top of these rankings. Just think of the kind of audience these types of shows are likely to draw. It's unfortunate that this list couldn't have been compiled a few weeks ago when most of the broadcast networks were still streaming new episodes. So You Think You Can Dance ranked pretty well, but I wonder if American Idol would have been tops here as well. Further into the list were some even more interesting choices.

Well, CBS hasn't posted the clip, but at least one YouTube user has posted Homer Simpson's recent appearance on Late Show with David Letterman. You can watch the clip below.

In the segment, Homer reads his top ten reasons why he should be president. It's pretty funny, though I think it might have worked better if the segment was just Homer rather than skipping back and forth between Homer and Letterman. I think it kind of threw the pacing off a bit. Also, is it just me or did Letterman not seem especially enthused about the whole thing? The combination of "just okay" jokes and Letterman phoning it in kind of brought the whole thing down if you ask me, which you didn't.

Do you watch The Weather Channel? Are you one of those people who can't enough info about high pressure systems and hurricanes? Today is your lucky day. Besides changing their logo (gasp!), the network is creating some new programming to broaden their viewership. They are going to have a morning news program, a regular news broadcast (with a non-weatherman anchor!), and even a Top Ten special, where they'll countdown the snowiest cities, most humid cities, and all that.

More programming? OK. But please don't subject us to some weather reality show. Maybe 10 budding meteorologists stay in a wind tunnel for a month, subjected to all sorts of weather, and the winner gets a Weather Channel gig? Actually, I'd watch that.