SI View The Week in Television

THE GUIDE

Sunday 2/10 NBC 5 PM

--NBA All-Star Game
Air got the better of Heir the last time Michael and Kobe hooked
up in an All-Star Game. In 1998 Jordan scored 23--Bryant had 18--to
win MVP honors.

Saturday 2/9--Friday 2/15

NBC, CNBC, MSNBC
--Winter Olympics: Week 1
There's no business like snow business--at least for NBC. Among
the opening week must-see-TV highlights: the men's downhill
(coverage starts at 8 p.m.) on Sunday and the women's downhill (8
p.m.) on Monday. NBC's prime-time coverage kicks off at 8 p.m.
during the week while CNBC morphs into the Hockey Channel every
night at 6 p.m. For those who can't get enough curling, MSNBC (1
p.m. to 6 p.m.) is the place to be.

ALL TIMES EASTERN. SCHEDULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

COLOR PHOTO: DAVID E. KLUTHO

sizzling & fizzling
Who Was Hot and Who Was Not

--Rare is the NFL analyst who forcefully questions a coaching
decision, as Fox's John Madden did when he said the Patriots
were making a mistake by not playing for overtime instead of
attempting to drive from deep in their own territory for a
game-winning field goal. Rarer still is the analyst who admits
on the air that he was mistaken, as Madden did on Sunday.

--Amid a sea of similar Super Bowl storylines, ESPN's Outside the
Lines distinguished itself with a terrific feature on the Wilson
Football factory in Aida, Ohio, which made the game balls.

--Of all of Fox's patriotic pregame features, none was better
than a moving reading of the Declaration of Independence by past
and present NFL stars.

--We know Fox had five hours of pregame programming to
fill, but the segment featuring a half-dressed Jillian Barbarie
canoodling at French Quarter hot spots with celebrity flotsam
such as Tara Reid was nauseating--even by the usually low pregame
standards.

--He may have been a Beatle, but what on earth was Paul
McCartney doing on Fox's on-field set during halftime? We would
much rather have seen more of U2's mesmerizing performance.

--It was weird that Fox chose to follow a classy postgame
tribute to the retiring Pat Summerall with NASCAR analyst
Darrell Waltrip's and star driver Jeff Gordon's hawking of the
network's upcoming coverage of the Subway 400.