blogs

The 40th season of Monday Night Football will kick off on ESPN with a doubleheader Monday, Sept. 14 previously announced Buffalo Bills at New England Patriots (7 p.m. ET) and San Diego Chargers at Oakland Raiders (10:15 p.m.) and will continue with a total of 17 primetime games. Following a successful season that delivered the three biggest cable household audiences of the year, and 13 of the top 15, ESPN's schedule will feature all 12 playoff teams from 2008, including both the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers and NFC champion Arizona Cardinals. You can enjoy all of the Monday Night Football broadcasts in High Def with DIRECTV. ESPN is included with every DIRECTV Channel Package, and you can add HD Access for only $10 more.

Play-by-play commentator Mike Tirico and analysts Ron Jaworski and Tony Kornheiser will call the MNF game telecast each week at 8:30 p.m. with additional MNF and NFL-related content available throughout the day across ESPN's multimedia platforms.

ESPN's Monday Night Football is the most-watched series in cable television history and the only NFL series nominated for a Sports Emmy in the Outstanding Live Sports Series category the past three years (2006-08). In three seasons on ESPN, Monday Night Football has registered seven of the top 10 all-time biggest household audiences in cable history, led by the Philadelphia Eagles-Dallas Cowboys telecast (9/15/08), which attracted cable's largest household audience ever (an average of 12,953,000 million homes).

The complete Regular Season Schedule is as follows:

Date Time (ET)

Sept. 14  7:00p.m. Buffalo Bills at New England Patriots

Sept. 14  10:15 p.m. San Diego Chargers at Oakland Raiders

Sept. 21  8:30 p.m. Indianapolis Colts at Miami Dolphins

Sept. 28  8:30 p.m. Carolina Panthers at Dallas Cowboys

Oct. 5     8:30 p.m. Green Bay Packers at Minnesota Vikings

Oct. 12   8:30 p.m. New York Jets at Miami Dolphins

Oct. 19   8:30 p.m. Denver Broncos at San Diego Chargers

Oct. 26   8:30 p.m. Philadelphia Eagles at Washington Redskins

Nov. 2    8:30 p.m. Atlanta Falcons at New Orleans Saints

Nov. 9    8:30 p.m. Pittsburgh Steelers at Denver Broncos

Nov. 16  8:30 p.m. Baltimore Ravens at Cleveland Browns

Nov. 23  8:30 p.m. Tennessee Titans at Houston Texans

Nov. 30  8:30 p.m. New England Patriots at New Orleans Saints

Dec. 7   8:30 p.m. Baltimore Ravens at Green Bay Packers

Dec. 14  8:30 p.m. Arizona Cardinals at San Francisco 49ers

Dec. 21  8:30 p.m. New York Giants at Washington Redskins

Dec. 28   8:30 p.m. Minnesota Vikings at Chicago Bears

Jan. 31  7:30 p.m. NFL Pro Bowl: NFC vs. AFC

All games on ESPN and ESPN HD on DIRECTV.

Customers Love DIRECTV

DIRECTV is the clear leader in sports programming for businesses. They offer NFL Sunday Ticket, NBA League Pass, NHL Center Ice, Nascar HotPass and much more.

If you have a TV - and what business doesn't - you need DIRECT TV for Business. Make sure your customers don't miss these hot upcoming sporting events.

Appearing in the CBS Networks fall line-up on DIRECT TV is a show titled "The Mentalist" whose plot and story line bear an uncanny resemblance to the USA Network's edgy and humourous series Psych.

CBS has once again tapped handsome and talented Australian actor Simon Baker, whom many tv viewers may remember for his role as Nick Fallin, a corporate attorney who is sentenced to 1500 hours of community service in the drama series The Guardian, which showed much promise when it left the starting gate back in September 2001, but was not able to go the distance and lasted for only 3 seasons.

Baker who has the lead role in "The Mentalist", plays California police detective Patrick Jane, an individual who has tremendously keen powers of observation and uses this ability to help him solve crimes, just like actor James Roday's character Shawn Spencer does on the USA network hit comedy/drama series Psych.

While there are some similarities between the two, after all hasn't it always been said that "imitation is the most serious form of flattery" The Menatlist, will offer more intense drama with perhaps a little low key humour interspersed within in so as to to add a little levity to the show at just the right moments. 

If you're a Psych fan, as am I, then why not give "The Menatlist", which airs Tuesday nights at 9:00 p.m. on the CBS network a shot. Comedy it's not, but who doesn't enjoy a well written and produced drama series every now and again. 

Have you seen Tabitha's Salon Takeover which airs on the Bravo Network with DIRECT TV yet? If not then you don't know what your missing. The show stars former Shear Genius competitor Tabitha Coffey who steps in and takes over (for about a week) struggling salons, who need direction in improving their salon business. 

Now while the premise of the show might seem ho - hum that's not what keeps me watching it. The reason I watch is because it's full of comdey, drama, and believe it or not a little bit of suspense. Who knew that a reality tv series had so much to offer in the way of entertainment.

In each episode Tabitha (who is definitely a realist in my opinion) enters a salon where she is downright opinionated, forceful, aggressive and takes a drill sargent like attitude toward salon owners and their employees in an effort to whip them into shape. She pulls no punches, just tells it like it is. If a salon is dirty, an owner has no business sense or a stylist has more attitude than styling skills shes not shy about letting them know about their problemsand exactly what the need to do to fix them. All this in an effort to help them turn their business around and instill in them a passion, such as she herself has for the business they are in and the shear artistry they perform.

Now I am not a big fan of reality tv, but since I first happened upon and watched Tabitha's Salon Takeover I make sure to set my DVR to record each episode. So whether or not you're in the hair salon industry, you definitely should check this show out.

Kudos to the Food Network for constantly rising to the challenge of continuously peaking the culinary curiosity of their avid fans by providing them with a constant influx of new and exciting shows.

The latest offering of the Food Network, The Cooking Loft, which is hosted by culinary creator and head chef Alex Guarnaschelli, at famed New York eatery Butter made its much anticipated debut last weekend. Let me tell you it was worth the wait. Chef Guarnaschelli's soft spoken, low key approach to cooking on this interactive show would make even the most novice of cooks confident in their ability to recreate all of the recipes she and her helpers prepared on the show. 

You can enjoy Food Network on DIRECT TV in high definition on Channel 231

The NBC network is set to premier yet another reality tv series. The show which is called America's Toughest Jobs will air Monday, August 25th at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on DIRECT TV.

This extreme competition reality tv series is the brainchild of creative/executive producer Thom Beers ("Deadliest Catch, "Ice Road Truckers") and executive producers Gail Berman and LLoyd Braun. America's Toughest Jobs will test the physical and emotional strength of 13 men and women as they compete against each other in some of the most dangerous and demanding jobs on the planet.

Some of the hair raising and agonizing jobs which the contestants will try to master the skills for are crab fishing, logging and oil rigging to name just a few. Each week the contestants temporary boss and co-workers for a particular job will determine whether or not they made the grade and if they will be allowed to soldier on or be sent packing. The interesting twist to this new reality tv show is that the annual salary of each job will be added to the pot until the finale, when one lucky greenhorn will be declared the winner and be the recipient of all that hard earned cash.

So if you're of fan of "Deadliest Catch", "Dirty Jobs" or "Ice Road Truckers", be sure to tune in and watch America's Toughest Jobs.

What! You have got to be kidding me! Those are just a few of the words and phrases that I was shouting out when I watched the season finale of the Next Food Network Star on DIRECTV. I could not believe that Aaron Mc Cargo, Jr., an executive catering chef for a hospital was crowned the winner. What I wonder is if the home viewer voted and only their votes counted would their choice be the same as the judges. It is after all the viewing audience who will be tuning in to watch the winners show.

First off, while I like Aaron and thought that he dished up some fine culinary fare, he definitely didn't come across as having any real stage presence. Yes, I know that he was nervous and who wouldn't be when you have a limited amount of time to produce a perfect performance on command. You would think however, that by the finale you would have your jitters under control. I mean, shouldn't the winner just exude confidence, authority and chrisma. It's these characteristics that give you credibility with the home viewer.

Then there's the issue with the name of his show. Rather than Aaron coming up with a catchy title or titles as Lisa did, he just latched onto the name that was pitched to him by Gordon Elliot. Does that mean Aaron will let others dictate to him the menu/meals he should prepare for each of his shows episodes.

I have to wonder why Bob Tuschman (v.p. programming & production) and Susie Fogelson (v.p. marketing) and the rest of the Food Network execs. decided to get the premier for Aaron's show "Big Daddys House" up and running so fast. The show will air it's first episode on Sunday, August 3, 1:30 p.m. e/p. Perhaps the powers that be at the Food Network have determined that it's better to air the show as soon as possible, to seize the moment and draw the viewer in quickly so they don't forget about the show, as might happen if they were to wait several months to air it. Remember The Gourmet Next Door, which was hosted by season three winner Amy Finley. She was named the winner on July 22, 2007 yet her show didn't air until October 14, 2007. Just ask yourself, when's the last time you saw a new episode of her show.

Finally, because none of the contestants had every thing the judges were looking for, they should have named all three winners, called the show "The Revolving Chef" or some other crazy name and just rotated them on a weekly basis, thereby showcasing the talent and creativity of Adam, Aaron and Lisa and giving the home viewer not only diversity but the option to choose and watch their favorite contestant do their thing.

Next time I'll use my DIRECTV DVR to record the contest and fast forward to the award decision.

The ABC Network premiered "Wanna Bet", their latest game show creation last night on DIRECT TV. After seeing and reading numerous trailers and hype about the network giants latest gamble I thought the show would have little entertainment value and would just be a move on the part of the ABC Network to fill air time, rather then run repeats of shows already in their line-up.

As Gomer Pyle would say, Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! I was actually surprised that I enjoyed the show. While all of the contestants performed quite admirably only one of them really stood out in last night's premier show. It was the contestant who was able to tell the name of a band and their album title just by licking a CD. Mind you he was blindfolded (he actually wore some kind of goggles or glasses with cds attached to them). If that isn't an unusual talent I don't know what is.

The hosts of the show, British comedians Ant and Dec, without even breaking a sweat, were actually quite funny. These two were so spot on with their line delivery that they didn't even need to come up with any over the top jokes. Perhaps Ant & Dec could give lessons to John(Henson) & John(Anderson), the hosts of ABC's other madcap game show "Wipeout", whose commentary seems somewhat lacking in humor.

Anyway, if you missed the premiere of the show either because you weren,t home or were watching something else at the time, then be sure set those DVRs to record the remaining episodes. You don't want to miss out on all the quirky, zany and over the top tricks and challenges performed by the contestants.

The Golf Channel's "Father’s Day Dream Trip" will celebrate the connection between fathers, their children and golf. As part of the campaign, which will run through June 15, will honor one lucky father and his son or daughter with a trip of a lifetime to the home of golf, St. Andrews, Scotland. The campaign is an essay contest that encourages consumers to submit a story that recounts a life lesson learned from their fathers through golf.

Others prizes to be won are 25 semifinalists will each receive The Golf Channel prize pack, including a $50 gift card from Dick’s Sporting Goods and a dozen TaylorMade golf balls. Five finalists, selected by an internal panel of judges and online voters, will receive a trip to the 2008 U.S. Open in San Diego, in addition to other prizes. The grand-prize winner will receive a $5,000 gift card from Dick’s Sporting Goods and $5,000 worth of golf equipment and apparel from TaylorMade-adidas Golf apart from the excursion to St. Andrews and the prize pack.

“If you’ve ever played the game of golf, chances are it was your father who placed that golf club in your hands for the very first time,” said Golf Channel president Page Thompson in a statement. "And, most likely, it was your father who taught you the lessons that have not only served you well on the golf course, but also in life,”

Enjoy The Golf Channel in High Definition on DIRECTV Channel 218.