TVSquad

Both the World Series and the start of the NBA season brought in big numbers for their respective networks this week. The MLB faceoff between the Yankees and the Phillies score Fox a 6.3 rating share or 19.3 million viewers in their timeslot. The NBA's doubleheader opener on Tuesday helped TNT score a record-breaking 3.7 million viewers.

Stories like these make me long for the Yoda-like wisdom of baseball's Yogi Berra. Just think of the grammatically incorrect gems he could conjure.

"People watch sports because it's easier than playing it."

"Sports has a big following because so few people follow it."

First of all, you should all be ashamed of yourself for thinking that title means anything but basketballer.

Former NBA player Duane Causwell and producer Mark Skeete are looking for America's Top Baller. That's the (hopefully tentative) name of a new reality show that's in the works. A bunch of guys will compete to see who is the best amateur basketball player in the country. The winner gets a bunch of money, a sports agent, and their own sneaker. Of course, winning this show doesn't guarantee an NBA career, but I would imagine that if you win this show you're probably pretty talented when it comes to basketball so you'll at least get a tryout with some teams.

We have to come up with a better title though. How about Dribble! or Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Basketball Player? Or maybe Don't Forget The Lycra Shorts! I think The People's Court would be a good title, but that's already taken.

[via TV Tattle]

As anyone who follows sports on TV knows, Bob Costas is a baseball guy. He loves, loves, loves the National Pastime. Therefore, since NBC has not had major league baseball for years, it's been rough on Bob. He's managed to keep his love for the game alive with books and speeches and as part of his work for HBO. Well, now he's going to be doing a lot more baseball.

Bob Costas is upping his commitment to the MLB Network, and leaving HBO. When the new baseball channel launched on January 1, 2009, included in the charter line up All Time Games, the rebroadcasting of vintage baseball games with Costas as the host.

I am now going to report on the telecast schedule for the 2007-08 NBA season. For those of you who are asking 'Wasn't NBA the name of the network on Studio 60?' please pass over this post as quickly as possible.

TNT will televise the first games of the new season, which begins on October 30th, with a double-header. The 8 pm kickoff will be between the San Antonio Spurs and the Portland Trail Blazers. That will be followed by a 10:30 p.m. game between the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers. TNT will televise 52 regular season games this year, with 46 of them being part of their exclusive Thursday night broadcast. They will also broadcast the annual All-Star game on February 17th. What this means to non-basketball fans is a few less showings of Law & Order. Yea, that's right, get angry!

• WE is running a Kate & Allie marathon all day until 9.
• At 8, FOX has a new Cops.
• CBS has Ocean's 12 at 8, to prepare you for next Friday's opening of Ocean's 13.
• NBC has the Ducks/Senators game at 8.
• TNT has the Pistons/Cavliers game at 8.
• Also at 8: Food Network has a new Emeril Live.
• At 9, FOX has a new America's Most Wanted.
• TBS has Ocean's 11 at 9 (see explanation above).
• TLC has a new Real Estate Pros at 9, followed by a new Backyard Nation.
• At 10, HGTV has a new Design on a Dime.
• Travel Channel has a new 5 Takes at 10, focusing on Latin America.
• BBC America has a new Graham Norton Show at 10, with guests Elijah Wood and Kim Cattrall.

Check your local TV listings for more.

Shaquille O'Neal is filming six episodes of a reality show for ABC. Here's the weird thing: it's about weight loss. And it's not Shaq who needs to lose the weight. The NBA giant is going on a public relations campaign to get kids across Florida to lose weight. He'll be visiting kids at Florida high schools and middle schools and apparently getting them excited about getting active. According to the Florida Dept. of Health, 14 percent of Florida high schoolers are at risk for being overweight and 11 percent are overweight.

Ummm.... I'm pretty sure I'd run or climb a jungle gym or do whatever big ol' Shaq told me to do, with or without cameras present. The untitled program, which is an hour-long, will air on ABC this summer.

Broadband video content has become plentiful and of a much better quality lately, but there's still the minor issue as to just how willing a person is to sit in front of their computer to watch video content for any extended period of time. Tivo is hoping to change that with TivoCast, which launched yesterday. The service is meant to being broadband video to the television sets of those using the Tivo Series2 with a broadband connection. Content will come from such places as the WNBA, the NBA, Heavy.com, iVillage, and CNET. These can be found in the "Showcases" section of the main menu. Other content providers will include H20; the Here! gay and lesbian network; HipHop on Demand; and Rocketboom, which is already available through Tivo.

The Daily Show decided to give Alan Greenspan a great send-off so they started up the "Irrationally Exuberant Tribute to Alan Greenspan". Yes, ladies and gentlemen and you two hardcore Greenspan fans, TDS had a full episode dedicated to Greenspan (except for the Charles Barkley interview). Jon expressed his love for Greenspan and his manly features ("I would totally do that guy!") and filled us in on the basics (Age: 79; Sign: Pisces; Porn name: Chad Lexington; Drag queen name: Buttons Manhattan; Jewiness Per Square Inch level of 59). Throughout the rest of the episode, correspondents joined in with their favorite Greenspan stories (Rob Corddry took Greenspan's idea once and dumped a girl he really liked, only to find Greenspan and the same woman having sex later).

OK, I was wrong, CBS won't be joining iTunes. According to an article over on Yahoo!, an unnamed source within Google has informed The Wallstreet Journal that Google is going to be making video content from both CBS and the NBA available for purchase from their video search, sometime in the near future.  Now, that was a lot of "maybes" and "I heard it from her who heard it from him who....," but you get the picture. Regardless, I could still see this becoming a reality. CBS seemed to test the waters last September when they released the entire premiere episode of Everybody Hates Chris for free in the search giant's video download section. That doesn't mean I like it, though. First off, I don't like that Google is charging for content that just strays too much from what they're about. Plus, I'd much rather have all of my content in one place ala iTunes or the newly launched (and Bill Gates endorsed) Vongo from Starz. That's just my two cents, but let me know what you think.

Despite the fact the NBA Finals started out with four straight blow-out games, Games 5 and 6 have been very exciting and terrific television. A Game 7 of any playoff series always draws attention, but the game tomorrow night ought to be really exciting because there is no clear favorite. I believe this game is a toss-up, and it wouldn't surprise me if the Pistons won it, even though they are the visiting team. Although the game won't start until about 9:20 pm Eastern time (a situation that has to be changed next year), it still should draw very good ratings. I'm hoping against hope that ABC will downplay the histrionics of the pre-game and halftime events and stick to the game itself, but hopefully the Spurs and the Pistons will put on a good show and make the other stuff obsolete.