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CBS 'Hoops' It Up with NCAA Tournament

© F. Colin Kingston

"March Madness" returns to the CBS Television Network when CBS Sports broadcasts the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship for the 22nd consecutive season. Live coverage begins on Thursday, March 20 and concludes on Monday, April 7 with the National Championship game from the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.

Their studio show, "The Road to the Final Four, " tips off CBS's coverage of first- round games on Thursday, March 20 and Friday, March 21 (12:00 Noon-5:00 PM, ET, and 7:00 PM-12:00 AM, ET, both days) and is hosted by Greg Gumbel and Clark Kellogg.

CBS Sports will broadcast the one-hour "NCAA Basketball Championship Selection Show" on Sunday, March 16 (6:00-7:00 PM, ET), during which the first-time announcement of pairings for the NCAA Tournament are made.

The announcing teams are as follows: Jim Nantz, Billy Packer and Bonnie Bernstein; Dick Enberg, Matt Guokas, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Armen Keteyian; Verne Lundquist, Bill Raftery and Lesley Visser; Gus Johnson, Len Elmore and Solomon Wilcots; Kevin Harlan, Jay Bilas and Dwayne Ballen; Ian Eagle, Jim Spanarkel and Derrin Horton; Craig Bolerjack, Dan Bonner and Brett Haber; Tim Brando, Bob Wenzel and Leslie Maxie. For more information, please see http://www.sportsline.com/collegebasketb...

CBS is making plans to farm out their coverage to various cable networks in case that war breaks out in Iraq during the tournament. Old game shows never die... NBC hopes that viewers are behind the ratings curtain when Monty Hall returns to make an appearance on their new version of the classic game show "Let's Make a Deal." Hall, who is executive producer on the new version, hosted the original series that first debuted in 1963.

The original game show featured a studio audience dressed in various homemade costumes. Contestants bargained with Hall and a chance to trade for, "What's behind the box." Sometimes it was a prize like a new car. Other times what was behind the box or curtain turned out to be a gag gift. I haven't seen the new version of the series yet, but I assume they haven't changed the format too much.

Billy Bush, the East Coast correspondent for "Access Hollywood", hosts the new version of the series. Hall makes his special return to the series on Tuesday, March 18 from 8-9 p.m. PST/EST.

This week in TV history: March 14, 1992. marked the final airing of "Capitol Critters" on ABC. One of the few flops from producer Steven Bochco, the animated series was a satire featuring mice, rats and roaches who live under the White House.