TV

This concludes the live-from-L.A. portion of my TCA coverage. But tune in (late afternoonish) Friday when I will be disgorging my online journal of all the news that's fit to blog from my nine days at the Beverly Hilton.

It was Al Michaels, John Madden and the rest of the seemingly ever-expanding team of commentators/reporters/analysts that make up NBC's football-coverage team.

Perhaps the biggest news item coming out of the panel was the reunion of Keith Olbermann with his ESPN counterpart, Dan Patrick. When someone asked about the secret of their success during those mid-90s hey-days when they co-hosted ESPN's Sportscenter, Mr. Patrick explained "We just tried to entertain each other."

Mr. Olbermann elaborated, saying "the goal being to make the other laugh uncontrollably on national television."

When, in a joking reference to the "controversy" that has dogged Mr. Olbermann here at the TCA Press Tour since, during an earlier Fox News panel," anchor Chris Wallace opined that Keith Olbermann's dual function on MSNBC as both outspoken editorialist and co-anchor of campaign coverage, was a breach of journalistic ehtics and/or intergrity, Mr. Olbermann was asked if his outspoken criticism of the Bush administration should disqualify him from serving as co-host of Football Night in America, he (eventually) responded thusly:

"Barring the possibility of John McCain picking Brett Favre as his running mate, I don't think it will be a problem."

As the panel wound down, a final question was asked. "Are any of you," someone queried "going to be on the next season of Dancing with The Stars?" A follow-up to the suprisingly slinky and newly traded REdskins pass-rusher, Jason Taylor who made it to the finals this past season.

Chris Collingsworth was the first to wave off the suggestion.

"My wife's been bugging me ever since the first season that show was on to take dancing lessons. I finally just told her 'I will never either look like or dance like Jason Taylor.' "

Jerome Bettis patted running-back-cum-commentator Tiki Barber and said "Tiki's our guy." For his part, Mr. Barber just laughed and shook his head 'no.'

Then Mr. Madden entered the fray on a serious note.

"I heard it's going to be Warren Sapp," he said and then proceeded to start doing what he does -- analyzing and forecasting the outcome.

"He's good, he's got the moves," Mr. Madden said. "I predict he'll win."

The panel had opened with a discussion of last year's Super Bowl (Mr. Madden thought it was good for football and -- more importantly -- football commentators that the NY Giants had one since it set up a more interesting storyline this season) and a look ahead to this coming Super Bowl. It culminated in Mr. Madden predicting that the New York Giants, against most oddsmakers, would win again.

Now he wrapped things up.

"I'm going with the Giants and Warren Sapp."

Another Deadwood alum, another Deadwood perspective. Last week, it was Timothy Olyphant dishing Deadwood and on Monday it was Ian McShane, aka Al Swearingen. Appearing at a panel for the new NBC drama, Kings, in which Mr. McShane plays -- can you guess? -- a king, someone asked for his thoughts/feelings on the sort of sad, undignified way that Deadwood ended. Mr. McShane likewise lamented its passing, and more to the point, the way it passed.

"They (HBO reps) said the reason was he (creator David Milch) was working on another show -- well, he was always working on another show. He had signed a three-show deal. You're familiar with David Milch and how he works. I suspect what happened was HBO saw that this was the most expensive show on television and went to David and said 'how about we just do maybe eight episodes this season. And he said 'how about we do [expletive] none?'

I always knew it was over, that was the end. Everyone involved did. That 'two movies' idea that was floated about was just a smoke screen. Pathetic. It left me with a bad taste for a while."

Think the Summer Olympics in Beijing are going to be a big deal? NBC, which paid $1 billion for the broadcast rights, certainly does. How big? Try "the single most ambitious media event in history" in the words of Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports and Olympics. Or, in the words of NBC's Olympic primetime host, Bob Costas, "uber-spectacular."

Start with the amount of coverage -- 3600 hours, more than the combined total of every other Olympics televised in the U.S., starting with the 20 hours CBS devoted to the first Olympic broadcast in 1960.

In a cutting-edge exercise of multimedia programming, all those hours are going to be spread across television, computers and mobile devices, and all are going to be broadcast in high-definition.

"That's probably the biggest technical innovation," Mr. Ebersol said, speaking by satellite from Beijing. At the last Olympics (in Salt Lake City) only five sports and the opening and closing ceremonies were in high-def. They were boutique presentations. Now every camera we're using, including the lipstick cams that will show you the arrows landing in the archery competition, will be high-def.

The other change that may mean even more to viewers -- considering that according to NBC astatistics, 95 percent of Americans still use standard televisions -- is that the majority of coverage will be live. In stark contrast to previous NBC-broadcast games, viewers will see what happens as it happens, as when, over the first eight nights, swimming events will be shown during primetime. Gone is the "plausibly live" approach of previous Olympic broadcasts when NBC would hold back events and package them for a primetime audience, showing them hours after they had happened and, in this evermore wired world, results were widely known.

One reason for the emphasis on live coverage is viewser frustration. "We've learned our lesson," Mr. Ebersol said.

Another reason is that China, though halfway around the world, is, conveniently, 12 hours ahead of New York -- mid-morning there is primetime back home. With all those high-def cameras and all that "cross-platform content" -- streaming video on nbcolympics.com, updates broadcast to cell phones, and , of course, all the coverage televised on NBC and its cable counterparts -- it's easy to understand why the Olympic mantra at NBC is "whenever, wherever, any hour, every hour."

If imitation truly is the the sincerest form of flattery, the NBC paid ABC a huge compliment during its executive panel by pulling the same stunt as its rival network did a few days ago. Just as the first question for ABC's president Stephen McPherson came from Jimmy Kimmel posing as journalist, the first questions to NBC's co-chairmen, Mark Graboff and Ben Silverman were asked by a bald, bearded guy in the back, who turned out to be Jay Leno in disguise.

It made for funny impromptu theater for the NBC execs, but it also allowed them to handle The Question -- what's going on with Jay and when will Conan be taking over The Tonight Show -- in a way they could control. Thus, a ballroom full of actual journalists found out that Jay Leno's last night as Tonight Show host will be Friday, May 29 of next year and Conan O'Brien's first will the next Monday, June 1. The stunt also allowed Jay to seem in on the joke and to dampen suspicion that this transition marks a fractious break between the talk-show host and his network, a suspicion that was seemingly buttressed by Mr. Leno himself in an interview with USA Today in which he was quoted as angrily saying he was done with NBC once his reign on the Tonight Show ended.

Just a misunderstanding due to a quote being taken out of context, according to Mr. Silverman, who said that the network continues talking with Mr. Leno about what role he might play after the switch to Conan.

"He came to us and said he felt bad about how he sounded in that interview. We're still talking to Jay about staying within NBC."

Jay Leno, the bald-headed journalist, didn't stick around to provide any answers. He just asked his questions -- "You've brought back Knight Rider, any plans to bring back Manimal? "Have you offered Jay a fifth hour of the Today Show?" -- and then he was gone. He didn't sound mad, but then, this is show business.

The Chicago Tribune has a story about the breakup between Disney and the movie-reviewing Ebert & Roeper hosts, the Trib's Roger Ebert and the Sun-Times' Richard Roeper:

"I wish Disney the best of luck with their new show, whatever form it may take," Roeper said in his statement. "In the meantime, it is my intention to proceed elsewhere with my ninth year as the co-host of a movie review show that honors the standards established by Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert more than 30 years ago. I will be free to share the details on that program in the near future."

We all remember the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunciton at the 2004 Super Bowl -- and the storm o' controversy that it sparked. The show also resulted some live broadcasts going with delays.

Read about an appeals court tossing out the $500,000 fine against CBS and tell us what you think.