SI View The Week in Television

the guide

Saturday 1/19

NBC 1 PM
--Washington at Chicago
A reason for Bulls fans to come to the United Center: Michael
Jordan returns to the Windy City as a member of the Wizards.

Saturday 1/19
Sunday 1/20

CBS 8 PM; Fox 4 PM
--NFL Divisional Playoffs
It's a Saturday-night special with the Raiders visiting the
Patriots, but the following day the Packers and the Rams hook up
in St. Louis in what is expected to be a shootout.

Friday 1/25

ESPN 9:30 PM
--Australian Open Women's Singles Final
For tennis fans looking for some thunder from Down Under,
here's hoping top seed Jennifer Capriati and Venus Williams, the
No. 2 seed, meet in the championship. At last year's Oz Fest,
Capriati played the opening riff on the year's feel-good sports
story with her victory over Martina Hingis.

ALL TIMES EASTERN. SCHEDULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

COLOR PHOTO: BOB ROSATO

sizzling & fizzling
Who Was Hot and Who Was Not

--Usually the fraternity of quarterbacks is as tight as the
Baldwin brothers, but Inside the NFL's Dan Marino deserves
praise for his frank comments about Brett Favre's impromptu
bootleg that gave Michael Strahan the sack record: "It puts a
big question mark in front of an NFL record."

--On TNT's broadcast of the Magic-Sixers game on Jan. 9, former
Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy was insightful and informative,
particularly in describing how to defend Orlando star Tracy
McGrady.

--Following its solid game coverage of the Packers and the 49ers
on Sunday, Fox took viewers inside the Green Bay locker room for
a fire-and-brimstone speech from coach Mike Sherman.

--The final 2001 Nielsen rating for ABC's Monday Night Football
(including two Saturday games) was a series-low 11.0, down 13.4%
from '00 and 19.7% from 1999. Free advice: Hire either Jon
Voight or John Turturro to play Howard Cosell and set him loose
on America each week.

--Tim McCarver, baseball's best analyst, doesn't have a local
gig for 2002. The Yankees' new YES Network announced last week
that McCarver won't be part of its on-air team. McCarver is
Fox's No. 1 analyst.

--Cable channel CNN/SI, which debuted in 1996, announced it will
cease telecasting sometime this year. Another network would be
wise to hire CNN/SI's underrated anchor Bob Lorenz and outspoken
football analyst Trev Alberts.