TVSquad

Yes, for everyone who has been waiting for a network devoted to nothing but skiiing (I'm one to talk; if I had The Tennis Channel I'd watch it 24/7), this is your lucky day. Or, to be more exact, some day in 2008 will be your lucky day.

That's when The Ski Channel launches. It's a new network devoted to, um, skiiing. I can't tell if it's going to be a regular network or something else, because it is described as a "network with distribution on video-on-demand and multimedia platforms." OK.

I was wondering how they'll fill the time with just skiiing, but they have that covered. From the article:

Tonight is the night that NBC has been waiting for: the gold medal showdown in ladies' figure skating. American Sasha Cohen enters tonight's free skate on top, but by only .06 of a point over Russian Irinia Slutskaya. Expect to stay up until midnight for the outcome of that competition (or you can get the results from any news website).

Also tonight, to fill the time between figure skating competitors, the women snowboarders compete in the parallel giant slalom. Curling, hockey, bobsledding and marathon speed skating are also on the schedule:

While NBC is focusing on speed skating and alpine skiing today, the real action is on its other networks, MSNBC and USA, where you can watch live hockey games all day long. The American men will play Finland in the quarterfinals at 11:30 this morning. Also, the American men's curling team is in the semifinal game against Canada. It airs on CNBC at 5 pm.

No figure skating tonight but the ladies will be back Thursday to determine the gold.

Here's the schedule:

Oh joy. Ice dancing begins tonight on NBC. That's one event that I just can't watch because it looks too much like high-school-drama-club-on-ice to me. They can't jump or do lifts, so they wear weird costumes and look longingly into each other's eyes. This is much more of an artistic event than a sport. Why is this still in the Olympics?

If you can stomach the ice dancing, there are some other interesting events on television tonight, including the premiere of women's snowboardcross. I saw the men's race last night and it was pretty darn cool. It's like motorcross on snow. Once again, the American women are the favorites.

As usual, there is plenty of hockey and curling on NBC's other stations:

The Olympics is usually a ratings juggernaut for NBC, but not this year. Since the Winter Olympics began a week ago, the games have been clobbered by new episodes of Grey's Anatomy, American Idol and Lost. In fact, the ratings have dropped every night since Opening Ceremonies and Olympics viewership is down 36% since Salt Lake City in 2002.

The Russians are well on their way to winning a gold medal in pairs figure skating tonight. After a flawless short program, Totmiyanina and Marinin enter tonight's long program almost four full points ahead of the next team. Also tonight is the women's halfpipe snowboarding competition. The U.S. men already claimed a gold last night, thanks to an awesome run by Shaun White. Tonight, Americans Gretchen Bleiler, Hannah Teter and 2002 gold medalist Kelly Clark all have a good chance at getting on the podium. Also tonight, more speed skating as American Casey FitzRandolph races in the 500m, for which he won gold in Salt Lake City. And the American women and men each take on Norway in curling.

Here's tonight's schedule on all of NBC's networks:

Some big names in competition today. On the slopes, Americans Bode Miller and Daron Rahlves hope they can hold back Austrian hot shot Alpine Skier Hermann Maier, who is on a mission to win since he missed the Salt Lake City games due to a motorcycle accident. Seattle native Apolo Anton Ohno (and his soul patch) go for the gold in the same race that caused controversy in SLC when he won after a South Korean speed skater was disqualified for interfering with Ohno during the race. But, the real spectacle of the night will hopefully be top-rated, red-haired, American snowboarder Shaun White, a.k.a. The Flying Tomato, as he goes for the gold on the half-pipe.

Here's today's Olympic schedule:

The winter Olympics begin this evening with the opening ceremonies on NBC. That means, for the next two weeks, you'll hear a lot of people chanting, "USA! USA!"

Personally, I love the Olympics. I let myself get caught up in the drama and the action, even though I'm definitely not a sports fan any other time of the year. The most popular sport during the winter Olympics by far is figure skating, specifically women's or pairs skating. Here, I'm listing the other sports that I will definitely be watching:

I am a total sucker for the Olympics, but I really hate all the cheesy, promotional crap that goes with it. This time around, NBC and Chevrolet are teaming up to feature some camera-friendly Olympians in their very own mini-movie. Oh, joy. It airs during Las Vegas on NBC in February and it'll also be included with advertisements before the trailers start at AMC, Cinemark, Regal, UA and Edwards movie theaters. Now, I clearly remember the little mini-movie that Chevrolet did during the last summer Olympics where a bunch of athletes call each other and drive their own Chevrolets to Athens (way to carpool, guys). I wanted to throw something at the movie screen everytime I saw it. Why? As a general rule, athletes can't act. You hear that, advertising geniuses? Athletes. Cannot. Act. This time around, the lucky Olympians are halfpipe snowboarders Kelly Clark and Ross Powers, alpine skiers Eric Schlopy, Ted Ligety, and Julia Mancuso, freestyle skier Toby Dawson and snowboarder Seth Wescott. They're all somehow paired up with the cast of Las Vegas and then whisked off to Torino, Italy for the competition. There will also be a behind-the-scenes mini-mini-movie of the mini-movie on NBC's website.