Paint me excited.

A New York Times report today speaks of Xbox Live acting as yet another means to accessing ESPN’s massive breadth of sports programming.

The report states Microsoft executives have held in-depth meetings with The Walt Disney Company concerning a program deal with ESPN.

The service is likened to that of ESPN 360, which streams many sports broadcasts to those with high-speed Internet connections, and will offer the same kind of thing to Xbox 360 owners.

Additionally, the report cites Microsoft as saying it regularly counts upwards of a million users logged into XBL at any given time, which is very comparable to that of TBS and Cartoon Network, which reach about the same amount, according to Nielsen.

Would you watch ESPN programming on your Xbox 360 if you could?

Source: Xbox Takes on Cable, Streaming TV Shows and Movie @ The New York Times

A bunch of cable premieres tonight — SyFy has “Ghost Hunters International” with a new season starting at 9. FX has “Nip/Tuck” at 10, and TLC has “Tailgate Takedown” also at 10.

The big news today is that Discovery and ESPN are creating 24/7 3D television channels.

Discovery Communications is teaming with Sony to develop an all-3D network by 2011, hoping to spur the purchase of special 3D televisions. Discovery promises content on the topics of history, space, adventure, engineering, tech, and children’s programming. Discovery is also working with IMAX on this deal.

At the same time, ESPN is working on its own 3D plans, and it said yesterday it would launch ESPN 3D this year to present 85 FIFA World Cup games starting on June 11. ESPN said it has been developing and testing ESPN 3D for more than 2 years, and will soon include the Summer X Games and college sports.

FOX Reality Channel is giving the always popular, often naked Cindy Margolis her own reality dating series called “Seducing Cindy,” starting January 30 at 9 p.m. The single mother of 3 will narrow down 24 would-be seducers in an attempt to find true love.

The People’s Choice Awards are on CBS tonight–btw.

The EA Sports division of Electronic Arts are working on a secretive new title, and today, as revealed by inside sources, that game is going to be a rebirth of the classic arcade-style basketball title NBA Jam.

w00t

According to ESPN, “NBA Jam” is primed and ready for EA to announce it later this month and is currently in development by members of the Midway team who crafted the original series.

I’m ready to believe. The game did coin the expressions “He’s on Fire!” and “Boomshakalaka!” after all.

Source: ESPN

Allow me to use this week’s edition of TV Week in Review to show my appreciation for a less-heralded brand of television entertainment. What stuck out on the tube this week was entertainment based in reality. No, not that kind of reality. Real reality. Heck, I’ll just say it.

I love documentaries. Always have, always will. Documentaries are a visual guide for the lazy lovers of non-fiction. Since I’m a lazy lover of non-fiction, and I don’t read it nearly as much as I should, I’ve always been drawn to documentaries. Whether it’s an episode of “True Lif” on MTV or Morgan Spurlock’s “Super Size Me,” I believe a good documentary is as entertaining as a good scripted drama. In fact, they’re often better because the drama is real.

So naturally, when I heard ESPN was bringing 30 original documentaries from 30 talented filmmakers in honor of their 30th anniversary, I was pretty excited. Love sports. Love docs. Love good filmmaking. It seemed like a natural love affair. Add in the ingenious ESPN “Sports Guy” Bill Simmons as the mastermind behind the project and I bought into it from the beginning.

After having watched the first three documentaries, my optimism and high expectations were realized and rewarded. Unlike ESPN’s last celebration of its anniversary, there has been nothing hokey about “30 for 30.” It’s just been enjoyable documentaries from talented filmmakers about stories which haven’t been broached one hundred times.

My favorite was “Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?” It retells the story of an upstart spring football league established in the early 1980s that takes on the mighty NFL. “Small Potatoes” relieves the league’s rise, its prominence, its ultimate demise and lasting legacy. It also perfectly portrays the league’s villain (Mr. “You’re Fired” himself, Donald Trump).

Directed and narrated by Mike Tollin, who had first-hand experience in the USFL as its film guy, “Small Potatoes” has a striking amount of depth. One reason I liked it better than the first two “30 for 30″ documentaries, (“The Band That Wouldn’t Die” and “King’s Ransom” “" both pretty good in their own right), was its breadth of interviews. Tollin talked to an impressive cast of characters ranging from Keith Jackson to Burt Reynolds. It really gave a first-hand impression of what it was like to be there at the time.

All in all, the documentary did a great job of depicting the USFL’s relevance to pro football. This was a league that had Jim Kelly, Steve Young, Hershel Walker, Doug Flutie, Reggie White, Anthony Carter and many other future NFL stars. It was a league that introduced 2-point conversions, instant replay and post-TD celebration pizzazz. Furthermore, in terms of storyline development, Tollin pointedly gets to the reasons behind the league’s quick rise and fall.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that Tollin, who directed the remarkable “Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream” documentary back in the mid-1990s, could put together such an impressive piece. Yet, to do it in a mere 52 minutes is nothing short of extraordinary. If the “30 for 30″ series continues with this kind of work, I’ll be hoping for more ESPN-based celebrations in the future.

TV Quick Hits of the Week
South Park: “W.T.F.”
“South Park” is one of those shows that can baffle you, make you cry tears of laughter and then do both at the same time. This is episode does the latter. The boys find themselves wanting to be wrestlers after attending a WWE event. When they go and try out for the school’s wrestling team, they find out that “real” wrestling is homoerotic and weird. Instead, they make up their own faux-WWE (aptly titled Wrestling Takedown Federation”¦or W.T.F.) with ridiculous storylines involving aborted babies. Of course, their soap opera storylines attract a wide audience of dumb rednecks who think it’s all real. The episode takes a bizarre twist as the boys put on a Broadway-like production, with very little wrestling mixed in, for a bunch of dumb hillbillies. Elsewhere, the rejected amateur wrestling coach goes on a crusade to prove his “wrasslin’” is the real one. If it sounds silly, it is. But these are the kinds of “South Park” episodes I love the most.

The Big Bang Theory: “The Creepy Candy Corollary”
First off, am I the only person in the world that didn’t know Wil Wheaton from “Star Trek: The Next Generation” was Gordie Lachance from “Stand By M”? As a fan of both the show and that movie, I’m really disappointed in myself. Anyway, this episode saw Sheldon trying to exact revenge on a fictionalized, evil version of Wil Wheaton. Jim Parsons’ angry, angsty and comic-book-like actions as Sheldon leading up to the confrontation with Wheaton carried this episode. Also, I’m still stuck on his hilarious “four napkin rul” at the table with Leonard. Priceless. The side plot had Penny setting up Wolowitz with one of her friends in a run-of-the-mill storyline.

30 Rock: “Into the Crevass”
I’m not sure how I feel about “30 Rock.” I watch it and often find myself laughing and enjoying its snarky, clever humor. However, I read its constantly glowing reviews, watch it collect a bunch of Emmy awards and start to think it gets way too much credit. It’s funny, it’s cleverly written “" it’s just not that good. This week was a great example. The storylines weren’t compelling, nor were the characters. That’s a huge part of scripted TV. “Into the Crevass” relied on a bunch of funny one-liners (ala Family Guy). Sometimes I feel like this show would be better off running 23 minutes of straight one-liners and quick wit rather than come up some with a forced, lame storyline.

Just a few premieres tonight, and they’re all on cable.

ESPN starts up “30 for 30″ at 8 p.m. Discovery opens new seasons of “Dirty Jobs” and “Ghost Lab” at 9 and 10 respectively. SyFy has “Scare Tactics” at 9, and A&E has “Parking Wars” at 10.

CBS has new episodes of “NCIS” and “NCIS Los Angeles” tonight, and we expect the network to carry the night.

MTV will air the Adam “DJ AM” Goldsten hosted/created series “Gone Too Far” starting October 12 at 10 p.m. The network had to get consent from the entertainer’s family. Goldstein died from a drug overdose in August.

Showtime has renewed “Californication” for a 12-episode fourth season in 2010.

Sony and Mark Barnett are re-booting “Fantasy Island” and developing a new hour-long elimination reality show involving 12 contestants at an exotic island resort, battling to become the next “Mr. or Ms. Roarke.” The contestants will battle to best fulfill the fantasies of the guests arriving on the island.

As reported on ESPN, “ESPN and the BCS announced the deal on Tuesday. It includes exclusive television, radio, digital, international and marketing rights for the Fiesta, Orange and Sugar Bowls from 2011-2014 and the BCS title game from 2011 to 2013.”

This means the Fiesta, Orange and Sugar Bowls, plus the BCS Championship Game, will be televised in prime…blah blah blah…who the F cares?

I read the article about five times and I still haven’t found the sentences that read, “starting in the 2009-10, college football season the NCAA will have a playoff system consisting of the top-eight ranked teams to determine the National Championship. Four newly formed bowls have been named. The Super Awesome Bowl will be featuring the number one and number eight ranked teams. The It’s Finally Here Bowl will be featuring the number two and number seven ranked teams in the nation. The There Will Finally Be No Arguments About Who Is Number One Bowl will play the number three ranked team against the number six ranked team. And finally, the If You Oppose This Playoff Format You Are An Idiot Bowl will host the number four and number five ranked teams.

Don’t give me the argument that the number nine team is left out of this tournament. Nobody cares about Boise State.

After round one we have four teams left, which leaves us three more games that can be played in the Fiesta Bowl, the Orange Bowl and the Sugar Bowl. These three bowls will alternate every year in hosting the National Championship game. It’s that easy.

I’m sorry I left out the Rose Bowl, but Vince Young’s and Matt Leinart’s performances in the NFL have completely ruined my perception of the 2006 game in Pasadena.

This new playoff system would be the best tournament in sports and would trump March Madness.