About 18 million or so folks tuned in to NBC's Sunday Night Football Game last night, the Minnesota Vikings versus the Arizona Cardinals. That's a really good number, but it wasn't the boffo bonanza NBC had in mind when they used the NFL flex schedule option to choose Bret Favre over Tom Brady.

When I wrote about the flex schedule last week, a lot of reader comments said that NBC decision made perfect sense because the Vikings-Card game would be a bigger draw than the Patriots-Dolphins.

Well, guess what happened? The Favre game turned out to be a bust. The Cardinals, led by Kurt Warner, shredded the Vikings and won handily 30-17. It wasn't close and the ratings diminished from the second half on.

One of the perks NBC has over the other networks when it comes to its football coverage is what's called the flex schedule. Unlike CBS and Fox and ESPN which get the games that are scheduled months in advance without regard for ideal match ups, NBC has the option of plucking a better game for the Sunday Football Night in America broadcast. Hence the term, flex, as in flexible.

Thus far this season, NBC has had three chances to flip the switch and passed. However, on December 6, NBC has chosen a Vikings/Cardinals game over a Pats/Dolphins match.

(S06E05) "No, we're up for it, but is this gonna be like the old days when you try to pay me back in personal training sessions and shit?" - Mark Wahlberg

Seems like the dynamic of Entourage is really shifting lately, huh? Over the past two or three episodes, Eric has moved to the head of the class, taking over the biggest parts of each half-hour. I'm not complaining, but earlier in the season I did wonder what the result of Vince's success would be. Now we know.

The move by the NFL to exclusively air this weekend's game between the New England Patriots and New York Giants on their own NFL network, which reaches only 40% of US households, was met with much criticism and frustration. With a win this weekend, the Patriots would become the first team to go undefeated in a 16-game season (the Dolphins did it in the 14-game '72 season).

Now it looks like pressure from Washington has changed their mind and suddenly the game is airing on NFL Network and both NBC and CBS. Of course, several local affiliates to the two teams had already negotiated exclusive rights to the game and sold ads at inflated rates, so they can't be too happy about having to share the game now with CBS and NBC.

There are many swears that have started to make their way on to television, and I don't mean just HBO and Showtime. I've heard "shit" and "asshole" sprinkled here and there.

But there's still one word that's a no-no, and that's the famous four letter word that begins with the letter "F." It's banned on network television, and I think even on cable you can only get away with it so many times during one show. In the movies there are limits to the number of times it is used and the context (exclamation or verb?).

After the jump are the top ten videos of the word being used on live television. This Digg post lists the Richard Simmons clip as number one, but that's not accurate because they're outtakes, not live segments. Still funny though!

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]

Mentioned briefly at the end of this story about the pregnancy of Bridget Moynahan, ex-girlfriend of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, is the fact that the writers of Six Degrees have no intention of writing her pregnancy into the series.

Whaaaa?

Yup, according to a Moynahan's spokesman, she is currently in New York City finishing up filming of Six Degrees. I really have no idea what this means, since the show hasn't been on in a while and it looked like it was a goner. I would say it's one of two things: everyone has contracts and the networks have made deals and they have to finish filming, or the show will come back to run the remaining episodes, either on TV or online, even though it's been canceled.

If a show that's been forgotten can come back from the dead, maybe they're filming new episodes of Eyes right now too?

So, what do you think it is?

Was it the debut episode of this season's American Idol? Was it the season opener of 24? Or maybe the half-season-ender of Lost a few months ago? The season opener of Grey's Anatomy?

Nope. The highest-rated TV show of the season so far was the third episode of Ghost Whisperer! OK, I'm kidding. The actual highest-rated show after the jump.

If you're from New England (or the past few years a football fan in general), you know that New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick isn't exactly a fashion plate. He always seems to wear the same thing, and looks kinda frumpy (no offense). But he really doesn't seem to mind it. He's not really the kind of guy who cares about looks.

That might change this Monday, October 30, on ESPN. That's when the cast of ABC's Ugly Betty will make an appearance on Monday Night Football and give Belichick a makeover. The people from the fictional Mode magazine on the show will do some Photoshop work on Belichick and turn him into Tom Brady.

I have no idea what this mean. Are they just going to take a picture of Belichick, click here and there and change him into Brady, or is it more involved than that, with Belichick and Brady actually involved? I guess we'll have to tune in to find out. The segment will air at 7pm.

I've never been a big fan of Boston. I always thought it was the New York for woosies. I mean, take the New England Patriots -- they have a quarterback who not only looks like he could date a supermodel, but could also be a supermodel. But one thing about Boston -- they've got great hometown spirit and I love that. They are one of those cities (i.e. Detroit) that has a lot of pride. But maybe too much pride.