With the Super Bowl just a couple of days away, there's been tons of attention paid to both the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts players. And it's all justifiable. After all, they've made it to the ultimate NFL game. But when it comes to commercials, the king is most likely Peyton Manning. Whether it's "Cut that meat" or Sony TVs or licking the inside of Oreo cookies with his brother Eli, Peyton has the upper hand on the entire NFL in ads.

But wait, there is another quarterback in the Super Bowl, Drew Brees, and he has at least one commercial that ranks right up there with the funniest stuff either Manning has done. It was a 'This is SportsCenter' promotion for ESPN.

CBS expects Sunday's Super Bowl XLIV to be the most watched television program in history. And the network is looking to make a mint on the big game after managing to sell every available ad slot for the broadcast.

The problem is a couple of those ads were sold to odd buyers when you consider that this is supposed to be a massive entertainment event. People are supposed to have fun watching the game they've waited all season to see. It's a reach to ask them to think about heavy socio-political issues.

The network estimates more than 100 million viewers will tune in this weekend when Peyton Manning (right) and the Indianapolis Colts take on Drew Brees and the upset-minded New Orleans Saints. The Saints look to be the sentimental favorite as the city struggles to rebuild from Hurricane Katrina.

Meanwhile, the Colts are playing in their second Super Bowl in the last three years -- having beaten the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI.

Expect to see a lot of Peyton Manning this Sunday on SNL Presents: Sports All-Stars, according to Will Forte and Jason Sudeikis. Forte and Sudeikis are hosting the two-hour prime time show (Jan. 31, 9 p.m. EST) as Twinkle and Stink, their ESPN Classic sports announcer characters. All-Stars will feature the best of the show's sports-related sketches from the vaults.

In a conference call with media earlier this week, Forte in particular was impressed with Manning, who will quarterback the Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl next week against the New Orleans Saints.

(S21E08) The last episode of 2009 also has the distinction of being the 449th episode of The Simpsons. The series will come back Sunday, January 10th for a 450th episode extravaganza, including a one-hour 20th anniversary special. It's certainly a big year for Tracey Ullman's one-time back-up series.

The beginning of the episode had an almost frantic pace, as it set up about four or five different possible plotlines, before finally settling on Bart's jealousy of Lisa and Maggie's relationship. His attempts to help his parents create a little brother for him were a little disturbing, but that was more than made up for by a fantasy sequence featuring many famous brothers.

Is anyone else out there as excited about Season 3 of Friday Night Lights, which premieres Oct. 1, as I am? Apparently, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning might be, since he's a big fan of the show.

(And if you're a true Colts fan, you'd better watch too -- especially if you're a Nielsen viewer. Or else, um, you might jinx him and cause the team to lose the Super Bowl.)

As you may have heard, FNL will air exclusively on DirecTV this fall (and repeat on NBC in early 2009. Yeah, it's a pain if you don't get DirecTV (like me), but subscribers will be happy to learn they'll be able to watch commercial-free.

Last night I went to a taping of the second installment of Idol Gives Back at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. This year the charities that benefited were Malaria No More, Children's Defense Fund, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, Children's Health Fund, and Save the Children.

Keep in mind, there will be spoilers. It's not like I found out the secret to Lost, but I figured I would still give fair warning. The show will air on Wednesday April 9th at 7:30 pm ET / PT. For what happened at the taping and in the press room, read on after the jump. And check back for Jason's review Wednesday night.

Annie's review of last Saturday's SNL pretty much encapsulated how I felt about it; it was above average, especially if you understood some of the jokes directed at guest host Peyton Manning. Since I'm a football fan, that was no problem; the NCAA sketch where the studio guys kept saying certain players "pulled a Peyton Manning" was funny to me because, until he won the Super Bowl last month, Peyton had a bit of a choker's reputation.

Anyway, the funniest bit of the entire episode was the phony United Way PSA, showing Manning "helping" a bunch of kids. Even watching it today on NBC.com, I couldn't help but laugh when Peyton not only checks the play at the line of scrimmage, like he does on every play he runs in the pros, but then he whips the ball at his receivers, whether they're ready or not. When he knocks them over, he calls them "losers;" he's so angry at one kid, he banishes the boy to a Port-O-Let so he can think about the error of his ways.

(S32E16) I know nothing about football. I know nothing about Peyton Manning. He's an athlete, right? Okay. I didn't expect much from him, since the majority of sports-related guests of the past have done poorly. To my surprise, Peyton did relatively well. I think this was partially due to the fact that the writing did not demand too much from him. Although this was a smart move to not make Peyton look like an idiot, it resulted in a mediocre episode.

Peyton Manning just has to do everything Tom Brady does, doesn't he? First, he won a Super Bowl and an SB MVP award, just like Brady (though Brady's won 2 SB MVPs and 3 rings). Now he's decided to celebrate his 31st birthday by hosting Saturday Night Live on March 24. Brady hosted the show two years ago, and did a pretty decent job of it, all things considered.

Manning should do an even better job, since he's already shown a pretty good sense of humor in the myriad commercials he's done over the years. I mean, what football fan didn't love it when he exhorts a deli guy to "Cut that meat!" in a MasterCard commercial? Or when he donned a clever disguise to extol his own virtues in a Sprint ad? Well, most of them didn't. But you can't deny that he'll do a serviceable job on SNL. Although, as far as athlete sketches go, nothing can beat the Joe Montana "I'll be upstairs masturbating" moment from 20 years ago.

(By the way, I'm not a Patriots fan; I'm a Giants fan. I think I'm just jealous because we got the wrong Manning, that's all.)

[via Deadspin]