Previews of Coming Attractions

This post deals with upcoming programming on the various networks. Let’s give them to you.

From NBA TV, we have the Fan Night Game for Tuesday as well as the week ahead on the channel.

Warriors @ Cavaliers Wins Vote for NBA TV’s Fan Night Game on Tuesday

NBA TV’s Tuesday Fan Night will feature the Golden State Warriors @ Cleveland Cavaliers match-up, winning with 43% of the fan vote on NBA.com. The game will air on Tues., Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. (ET) with host Ernie Johnson and analysts Chris Webber and Kevin McHale on-hand for studio coverage beginning at 6:30 p.m. (ET). Fan Night voting will continue on NBA.com from Tues., Nov. 17 (8 a.m. ET) – Thurs., Nov. 19 (Midnight ET) as fans select the match-up for Tues., Nov. 23 between six games:

Indiana Pacers @ Toronto Raptors
Philadelphia 76ers @ Washington Wizards
Golden State Warriors @ Dallas Mavericks
New Jersey Nets @ Denver Nuggets
Oklahoma City Thunder @ Utah Jazz
New York Knicks @ L.A. Lakers

Tipping off Tuesday night is The Jump on NBA.com, a live, interactive show that allows fans to submit questions and comments to NBA.com’s Kyle Montgomery, Dennis Scott and Brent Barry via NBA.com, Facebook or Twitter. The show will stream live each week at 1 p.m. (ET).

Every Wednesday NBA TV features original programming; this Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. (ET) the network will air REAL NBA: Rookie Points which takes a look at the impact of the league’s talented rookie point guards. REAL NBA spends time with a number of these talented rookies including Brandon Jennings (Milwaukee Buck), Tyreke Evans (Sacramento Kings), Jonny Flynn (Minnesota Timberwolves) and Darren Collison (New Orleans Hornets).

At 8 p.m. (ET), NBA SPECIAL: NBA 10: The Inside – Generation Now will profile the 1980’s NBA renaissance when transcendent stars such as Magic Johnson and Larry Bird made even the most casual fan sit up and take notice. Now, decades later, a new group of stars is fueling strong interest in the game with superstars like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul are just some of the names who have the skills and personality to be stars on and off the court. The special explores the 1996 and 2003 classes that have stocked the league, the influx of international players who have developed into stars, memorable playoff performers and a still-younger generation who are knocking on the door and seeking entry into the NBA’s “new” Golden Age.

In addition to the Fan Night game, NBA TV will also feature live games on Monday, Nov. 16 at 8 p.m. (ET) with the Dallas Mavericks @ Milwaukee Bucks, on Saturday, Nov. 21 at 8:30 p.m. (ET) with the Washington Wizards @ San Antonio Spurs and on Sunday, Nov. 22 at 8 p.m. (ET) with the Detroit Pistons @ Phoenix Suns.

Every Saturday at 1 p.m. (ET), NBA TV features a Euroleague Game of the Week. This Saturday, Nov. 21, the game will feature a match-up between teams filled with former NBA players. Olympiakos (Greece), whose roster includes Josh Childress (Hawks), Von Wafer (Lakers, Clippers, Nuggets, Blazers, Rockets) and Linas Kleiza (Nuggets), will face Efes Pilsen (Turkey) who have Bostjan Nachbar (Rockets, Hornets, Nets) and Igor Rakocevic (Timberwolves) on their roster.

Check out TNT and NBA TV Insider David Aldridge’s new NBA.com column The Morning Tip that recaps NBA action and includes analysis and musings on players, teams, games, news and everything NBA-related. Follow this link to read his latest edition: http://www.nba.com/2009/news/features/david_aldridge/11/16/morning.tip/index.html

NBA.com adds a new columnist/blogger to the site with former Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Sekou Smith joining the ranks. Smith will pen a daily blog called Hang Time as well as appear every Tuesday on The Jump on NBA.com as a Fan Voice contributor. Smith’s blog debuts today and can be found at: http://my.nba.com/cms/2009/11/16/hornets_pushing_all_the_wrong_buttons_with_paul

NBA TV PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE:

NBA TV SCHEDULE (all times ET): NOV. 17-22

TUESDAY, NOV. 17: FAN NIGHT

1 p.m. (NBA.com) The Jump on NBA.com Kyle Montgomery, Dennis Scott, Brent Barry

6-6:30 p.m. THE BEAT Marc Fein, David Aldridge

6:30- 7 p.m. Pregame Show Ernie Johnson, Chris Webber, Kevin McHale

7- 9:30 p.m. NBA Regular Season: Golden State Warriors @ Cleveland Cavaliers Local Announcers

9:30 – 10 p.m. NBA GameTime Ernie Johnson, Chris Webber, Kevin McHale

10 p.m.- 2 a.m. NBA GameTime Rick Kamla, Steve Smith

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 18

6:30-7 p.m. NBA ACTION

7-7:30 p.m. All-Access with Ahmad Ahmad Rashad

7:30-8 p.m. REAL NBA: Rookie Points

8-8:30 p.m. NBA SPECIAL: NBA 10: The Inside – Generation Now

8:30-9 p.m. All-Access with Ahmad (REAIR)

9- 11 p.m. NBA GameTime Andre Aldridge, Kenny Smith, Eric Snow

11 p.m.-12 a.m. All-Access/REAL NBA (REAIR)

12- 1 a.m. NBA GameTime Andre Aldridge, Eric Snow

THURSDAY, NOV. 19

8p.m. – 1 a.m. BEST OF THE 2000’s: NBA E Presents 2001

FRIDAY, NOV. 20

7 p.m.- 2 a.m. NBA GameTime Friday Rick Kamla, Cheryl Miller, Steve Smith

SATURDAY, NOV. 21

12:30-1 p.m. FIBA World Basketball Studio Show

1-3 p.m. Euroleague Game of the Week: Olympiakos vs. Efes Pilsen

7-8 p.m. NBA GameTime

8-8:30 p.m. Pregame Show Andre Aldridge, Cheryl Miller, Eric Snow

8:30- 11 p.m. NBA Regular Season: Washington Wizards @ San Antonio Spurs Local Announcers

11p.m.- 1 a.m. NBA GameTime Andre Aldridge, Cheryl Miller, Eric Snow

SUNDAY, NOV. 22

7-7:30 p.m. NBA GameTime Marc Fein, Steve Smith

7:30-8 p.m. Pregame Show Marc Fein, Steve Smith

8-10:30 p.m. NBA Regular Season: Detroit Pistons @ Phoenix Suns Local Announcers

10:30 p.m.-1 a.m. NBA GameTime Marc Fein, Steve Smith

Next, Golf Channel has its programming for this week.

COMING UP ON GOLF CHANNEL… Nov. 17-22, 2009

Contestants “Rev Up” Drives on Big Break Disney Golf

Season Finale of Inside the PGA TOUR

Original Programming Premieres and Highlights

(All times eastern)

Big Break Disney Golf

Time: Tuesday 10 – 11 p.m.

Hosts: Vince Cellini, Stephanie Sparks

Tuesday’s new episode of Big Break Disney Golf will feature a first-time challenge, when the remaining seven contestants will compete in a unique driving challenge along pit road at Walt Disney World Speedway. The contestants’ short game will then be put to test in order to avoid elimination. Tuesday’s new episode will re-air Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET.

Inside the PGA TOUR (Season Finale)

Time: Tuesday 7:30 – 8 p.m.

The season finale of Inside the PGA TOUR will recap the Children’s Miracle Network Classic and the 2009 season with player profiles, interviews and features.

2009 U.S. Open Highlights (Premiere)

Time: Wednesday 10 – 11 p.m.

GOLF CHANNEL will air a one-hour highlight show recapping the 2009 U.S. Open, held at Bethpage Black Course in New York. In a rain-soaked event, sentimental favorites Phil Mickelson and former World No. 1 David Duval rocketed up the leaderboard, only to witness Lucas Glover steadying his hand and claiming his greatest title.

News and Talk Show Programming Highlights

Golf Central

Live Airings: Tuesday – Sunday 6-6:30 p.m. (Live)

Tuesday – Wednesday 11:30 p.m. – 12 a.m.

Friday – Monday 12:30 – 1 a.m. (Live)

Tuesday – Wednesday, Golf Central will recap all of the top storylines from the Children’s Miracle Network Classic, JBWere Masters and the Lorena Ochoa Invitational and preview the LPGA Tour Championship and the Dubai World Championship. Following live tournament coverage of the LPGA Tour Championship Thursday – Sunday at 6 p.m. ET, Golf Central will recap the action of the second stage of PGA TOUR Q-School Wednesday – Saturday and deliver all of the golf news and highlights from the various tours.

Golf Central Pre Game

Live Airings: Thursday – Saturday 3:30 – 4 p.m. (Live)

Sunday 2:30 – 3 p.m. (Live)

Golf Central Pre Game will prepare viewers for all of the action at the LPGA Tour Championship and the Dubai World Championship with interviews, analysis and highlights. Inga Hammond and Frank Nobilo will host Golf Central Pre Game from the network’s Orlando studios.

Also on Tuesday, MLB Network runs an interview Bob Costas conducted with legendary Hall of Fame announcer Ernie Harwell who has inoperable cancer.

MLB NETWORK’S BOB COSTAS INTERVIEWS BASEBALL BROADCASTING GREAT ERNIE HARWELL ON NOVEMBER 17

Studio 42 with Bob Costas episode to discuss Harwell’s 55-year career and his battle with cancer

November 12, 2009 – MLB Network’s Studio 42 with Bob Costas will debut an interview with longtime Detroit Tigers play-by-play announcer and Hall of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell on Tuesday, November 17 at 8:00 p.m. ET. Throughout the interview, Harwell, 91, discusses his 55-year career in broadcasting with the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants, Baltimore Orioles and Detroit Tigers, as well as the incurable cancer he was diagnosed with in Septe
mber 2009. At the interview’s close, Harwell recites the speech he gave upon being inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on August 2, 1981. A preview of the interview, which will re-air on November 17 at 10:00 p.m. ET, can be seen here.

Prior to the interview, MLB Network will air Hot Stove, its live studio show in the offseason with updates and analysis of the moves all 30 clubs are making and planning in preparation for the upcoming season, at 6:00 p.m. ET and 7:00 p.m. ET/PT. Following the interview, MLB Network will re-air Studio 42 with Bob Costas featuring Major League Baseball umpires Don Denkinger, Bruce Froemming and Steve Palermo at 9:00 p.m. ET.

Highlights from the interview with Harwell include:

ON HIS HEALTH

This will be my last World Series, I think. Back in July, the doctors gave me six months to live, give or take a few months. I’m hoping to reach my birthday on January 25 but I’m pretty sure I won’t make the baseball season. But you never know as the Lord works wonders.

I’m not overwhelmed by the circumstances. One of the doctors said, “If you were my father, I’d say, don’t do anything, just relax and wait for the inevitable.” But I had great peace about that and closure to it and I knew God was in charge and whatever happens, happens for the best. I really have a lot of serenity and great support from my wife family and friends. It’s been so far a fairly easy task to accept it.

On Returning to Comerica Park on September 16

That was a great event for me. First of all, I addressed the team, which was a real honor. Jim Leyland had the whole team around. And after a couple innings, they sent me out there with a microphone and I said a few words of farewell. It was very heartwarming for me to see the way people felt about me.

The old voice hasn’t changed that much in 50 years and I thank mainly the genes, the good health the Lord gave me, and the fact I enjoyed the job so much. I never looked at it as work. It was something I got great pleasure out of; Getting to know the people in baseball, traveling with them, and being a part of that great Major League Baseball fraternity.

ON SUPPORT FROM FANS

I don’t think there’s any reason for this response except that I was the Tiger announcer. I showed up and did the best I could. I tried to be myself and my whole philosophy was the game was the main thing and don’t ever interfere with the game. People tune in to what the Tigers are doing. No matter whose doing the game, they’re going to tune in.

ON BEING A LOCAL MLB ANNOUNCER

I do feel like those people out there were my friends and I hope I was their friend. It is a unique association that you have with your listener. I really appreciate the fact that they’ve taken interest in me. I don’t know that I deserve that. All I tried to do was be myself. I wanted to broadcast the game that I thought I’d like to hear as a listener. I tried to give the score as often as I could. I let the play take over and fill in with anecdotes or historical information that maybe nobody else came up with. There were going to be some people who like you and some who don’t like you and you have to accept that when you start out.

On moving from the segregated South to Brooklyn in 1948

It was a little strange seeing a black man play against white competition. I accepted it and Jackie Robinson became a very good friend of mine. I played cards with him, played golf with him, rode the train with him. It’s the most exciting and most eventful thing that’s happened in sports history, the breaking of the color line by Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey.

On leaving Baltimore IN 1960 and taking THE job WITH THE DETROIT TIGERS

So I made the jump and it was probably the best move I ever made because the people in Michigan have really been super. They’re great fans, it’s an origin
al franchise, and they have a great passion for baseball.

ESPN previews what it will show this week in motorsports including the NASCAR season finale.

Motorsports This Week on ESPN and ABC

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Season Finale Live on ABC

The 2009 season finale for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is this weekend at Florida’s Homestead-Miami Speedway as the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup ends with the crowning of the champion. ESPN’s live, flag-to-flag coverage of the Ford 400 airs Sunday, Nov. 22, on ABC and ABC HD beginning with NASCAR Countdown at 2:30 p.m. ET. The race’s green flag is at 3:30 p.m.

Also from Homestead, ESPN2 airs coverage of NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying on Friday, Nov. 20, at 3 p.m., as well as coverage of final practice on Saturday, Nov. 21, at 3 p.m.

Dr. Jerry Punch will be lap-by-lap announcer for ESPN’s coverage, with analysis by 1999 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Dale Jarrett and two-time NASCAR champion crew chief Andy Petree. Reporting from the pits will be Dave Burns, Jamie Little, Shannon Spake and Vince Welch, with two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion crew chief Tim Brewer in the ESPN Tech Garage.

Allen Bestwick will host the pre-race NASCAR Countdown program with analysis by 1989 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Rusty Wallace, Brad Daugherty, co-owner of a winning team in
the NASCAR Nationwide Series, and three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion crew chief Ray Evernham in the ESPN pit studio.

SportsCenter Special Originates from Homestead on Championship Day

ESPN’s flagship program SportsCenter will present a 90-minute special from Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, Nov. 22, at 1 p.m. ET, following NFL Countdown on ESPN. The telecast will lead up to NASCAR Countdown on ABC at 2:30 p.m.

SportsCenter at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship will be hosted by Allen Bestwick and will give NASCAR fans the opportunity to see things that go on prior to a race that they normally don’t get to see.

Mike Rowe, host of Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel, will be a special on-site reporter for ESPN and look at some of the dirty jobs of NASCAR. Rowe’s voice has been heard by NASCAR fans as the narrator of segments during ESPN’s coverage of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup this season.

ESPN’s Dave Burns will spend the program shadowing the #48 Lowe’s Chevrolet of Jimmie Johnson, taking viewers behind-the-scenes as the car goes through final race preparation and NASCAR inspection. And ESPN’s Marty Smith will shadow Johnson himself in the hours before he attempts to make history as the first driver to win four consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup championships.

The program also will include a heartwarming story of how the building of Homestead-Miami Speedway in 1994 and 1995 helped bring the Homestead area back from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Andrew, one of the worst natural disasters in history, on Aug. 24, 1992.

Joining Bestwick in the ESPN Pit Studio will be analysts Rusty Wallace, Brad Daugherty and Ray Evernham. Several NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers also are expected to stop by the studio during the course of the program.

NASCAR Nationwide Series Finale Live from Homestead on ESPN2

ESPN2 completes its season-long coverage of the NASCAR Nationwide Series this weekend as the series concludes 2009 with the Ford 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The live, flag-to-flag telecast airs Saturday, Nov. 21, at 4 p.m. ET, with the green flag at 4:45 p.m. ESPN2 is the home of the NASCAR Nationwide Series all season, with selected races on ESPN and ABC.

Marty Reid will be lap-by-lap announcer for ESPN’s coverage, with analysis by 1999 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Dale Jarrett and two-time NASCAR champion crew chief Andy Petree. Reporting from the pits will be Dave Burns, Jamie Little, Shannon Spake and Vince Welch, with two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion crew chief Tim Brewer in the ESPN Tech Garage.

Allen Bestwick will host the pre-race NASCAR Countdown program with analysis by 1989 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Rusty Wallace, Brad Daugherty, co-owner of a winning team in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, and three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion crew chief Ray Evernham in the ESPN pit studio.

NASCAR Now Originates from Homestead for Season Finale

NASCAR Now, ESPN2’s daily NASCAR news and information program, will close out its 2009 season with four shows originating from Homestead-Miami Speedway, site of this weekend’s final races of the NASCAR season. Allen Bestwick will host the programs with analysts including Rusty Wallace, Brad Daugherty, Ray Evernham and Dale Jarrett, and reporters Mike Massaro, Nicole Manske and Marty Smith.

The first program from Homestead airs Friday, Nov. 20, at 12:30 a.m. ET (late Thursday night), with another airing Saturday, Nov. 21, at 12:30 a.m. (late Friday night). The one-hour weekend edition air
s Sunday, Nov. 22, at 10 a.m. with a preview of that day’s NASCAR Sprint Cup finale at Homestead, with the final NASCAR Now of the season airing at 10 p.m. Sunday.

Massaro hosts half-hour editions of NASCAR Now from ESPN’s high definition studios in Bristol, Ct., on Wednesday, Nov. 17, at 1:30 a.m. (late Tuesday night), and Wednesday at 6 p.m. Smith will report from Miami for both programs.

ESPN Classic Returns to North Wilkesboro Speedway

With long-dormant North Wilkesboro (NC) Speedway scheduled to re-open late in 2010, ESPN Classic will bring NASCAR fans back to the 0.625-mile short track with a look at the 1989 Holly Farms 400, a NASCAR Winston Cup race. A one-hour highlights program airs Monday, Nov. 23, at noon ET.

NHRA Drag Racing Series Action Airs Sunday

The NHRA Drag Racing Series will air Sunday, Nov. 22, at 11 p.m. ET on ESPN2 with coverage of series action from the event held at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, Calif.

Featuring race vehicles that range from 5-second Top Alcohol Dragsters and Top Alcohol Funny Cars to 15-second Stockers, the NHRA Drag Racing Series is the premier Sportsman series in drag racing. Eight categories are included in the series, which is showcased at selected NHRA national events. ESPN’s Dave Rieff will anchor the coverage from Pomona.

That will do it. Tomorrow, we’ll have more stuff to post. Keep it here.