TVSquad

• At 7, WE starts airing Kate & Allie (two episodes).
• At 8, CBS has the series premiere of Creature Comforts.
• NBC has the Ducks/Senators game at 8.
• TLC has two new episodes of Little People, Big World at 8.
• The History Channel has two new episodes of Cities of the Underworld at 8.
• Some private eye shows on American Life at 8: Harry O, 77 Sunset Strip, and Surfside 6.
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus is interviewed on a new Inside The Actor's Studio on Bravo at 8.
• At 9, ABC has a new Ex-Wives Club.
• The new season of Hell's Kitchen starts on FOX at 9.
• Larry King interviews Jack Kevorkian on CNN at 9.
• USA has a new Monday Night RAW at 9.
• At 10, FX has the season finale of The Riches.

Check your local TV listings for more.

• 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.

I can't remember the last time I paid attention to hockey. In the 70s and 80s it was really big in my home, but that's when the Boston Bruins were doing really well (same with the Celtics, but that's another story). Hockey is that "other" mainstream sport, one that you really have to be a fanatic to get into (unlike baseball and football, which even casual fans watch). And some of those fanatics turn out to be celebrities, and they're keeping blogs about the NHL playoffs.

Bones star David Boreanaz, Ed's Tom Cavanaugh, Christie Brinkley, William Fichtner from Prison Break, and Eddie Cahill from Friends share their views on the Eastern Conference teams, while The Office's Brian Baumgartner, Dancing with the Star's Willa Ford, and singer Amy Grant provide analysis of the Western Conference teams. I thought that it would be all Canadian celebs, but as far as I can find out only Cavanaugh is from our northern neighbor.

[via Pop Candy]

FOX had a flaming puck. ESPN had blanket coverage and Barry Melrose's mullet. And Versus has... well, since no one can see them, no one really knows what they have. Almost every network has tried to make hockey a more attractive game to national viewers, and they've universally failed. So what is NBC, in the second season of its broadcast deal with the NHL, going to try? Think youngsters in skates.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, NBC's strategy this year will be to highlight the young stars of the league, especially in their primary game of the week. They will still show three regional games every week, but will concentrate marketing efforts on the main game, which will often feature up and coming players like Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins. In fact, the Penguins will play the Philadelphia Flyers in the first NBC Game of the Week on January 13. Anything should help; the Peacock Network averaged a 1.0 rating in their games last year, down a tenth of a point from ABC's coverage in the pre-lockout season of 2003-04.

1. Baseball: This sport was really made for television. It's slower than other team sports, perfect for those warm summer nights, a cold drink in your hand, maybe a breeze coming in the window as you watch. And unlike other team sports, the pace gives the viewer time to figure out their own strategies for the game (hockey and basketball are too fast, and football has too many players doing too many things at once for the average Joe).

Hockey fans can now embrace the Outdoor Life Network and smack ESPN upside the head with a puck, because the former will be airing NHL games for the next two seasons while ESPN, well, won't. Of course, ESPN insists it's all business. The seminal sports network dropped the NHL after the lock-out last year, and while it maintained the right to match offers made by other stations, it decided not to match the $135 million offered by OLN, claiming that the ratings history and "prolonged work stoppage" simply wasn't worth it.