nowandlater

I'm barely watching Colbert these days, but I watched for Mindy Kaling. That whole bit was just actively irritating.

I decided to watch the London game even though it started at 6:30 am because 1) I think I've watched every London game so far, 2) it's kind of cool to be watching football at 6:30 am, and 3) I was up anyway. The problem was I was so exhausted from watching that game, that fell asleep during the early games (I was watching Seahawks/Jets and Raiders/Ravens). And I also missed the late games. Thankfully, I was wide awake for that exciting Sunday Night Football game.

It's really weird that it would be that long. Since Wisconsin and Michigan last played, Cal and Texas have battled it out 3 times (2011, 2015, 2016).

Does Baldwin become a cast member? Will he be part of the opening credits? Will he be a featured player? Or will he get no credit like Larry David (but Bernie wasn't on that many times)?

A few years back, when I was an SNL diehard, I would try to watch the crappy illegal streaming East Coast live feed,so I wouldn't be spoiled for the West Coast broadcast. The stream was so horrible (cutting out every 5 minutes) that I evolved into just avoiding all possibly spoilery websites before the tape-delayed broadcast. On the Larry David night, I was doing my best at avoiding the internet, but I decided to check out a sports website because, I thought, no way would they spoil SNL for me. They did spoil it. Speaking of which, is Alec Baldwin committed to playing Trump for the entire 12 years of his presidency?

Somebody on the casting thread made a good point that Darrell was the mockable Trump. But now that he's close to winning the presidency, they can't turn him into a clown to normalize him anymore (like Jimmy Fallon was criticized for recently doing).Insert other media

I read that CNN didn't show Lester Holt for almost the entire debate because they didn't want to promote a rival anchor, so he was just a disembodied voice. Perhaps SNL will do the same...

1. Yes, I was also annoyed that Lawrence didn't mention Reagan's governor experience. (I remember it because, as a UC Berkeley alum, I learned about how Gov. Reagan sent National Guard helicopters to gas student protesters, even though that was way before my time.) 2. New York Magazine's Frank Rich, the former NY Times columnist who now produces Veep, did have a great article a few months back about how Reagan was actually considered a clown when he ran in 1976.

I guess you don't follow his Twitter account.

Speaking of which, I wonder why some teams (such as the Packers) never play in London. Green Bay would never give up a home game, of course, but why not have them do a road game? A London game should be more likely now that they're doing a few a season. I think Aaron Rodgers said it was one of his bucket list items to play in London. One thing the London games do is sometimes deprive cities of seeing certain teams. For instance, NFC teams play at each AFC stadium every 8 years (and vice versa). The Saints were supposed to play at San Diego in 2008, marking Drew Brees' return to his former team. Instead, that game was moved to London. This Sunday (eight years later) Drew Brees will finally get to play in San Diego for a regular season game. Tom Brady has never played in Tampa Bay because the Patriots @ Tampa Bay game in 2009 was moved to London. If he's still around next year, Brady will finally get to play in Tampa for a regular season game. (Brady will play @ the 49ers for the first time in his career this year -- he never got to play in Candlestick Park.)

What really bothers me -- and they do this every year -- is when a team will play on Monday Night Football, then play the following week on Sunday Night Football (or vice versa). By the way, does anybody know why this week's Thursday Night Football game is only on NFL Network (which I don't currently have)? I thought they'd be split between NBC and CBS. Previously, when CBS just had it, the NFL Network wouldn't get exclusive TNF games until later in the season.

It's too bad we're only getting 4 primetime Bears games this season.

College Gameday is going to Tennessee...it's been 2 weeks since their last Tennessee game. Aren't there any other options next week?

An LA Times reporter noticed this near the L.A. Memorial Coliseum...

It was weird. During the primaries, Donald allowed somebody in the audience to touch his hair. What Fallon did didn't seem that unusual, or laugh-worthy.

I like the guy. I just hate when guests are on twice in a short period of time. Olyphant was last on on April 27. My thing is: Unless you're an A-lister or very newsworthy person (Clinton, Trump), you shouldn't be on the same talk show twice within a 6-month period. But maybe there aren't enough talk show guests to go around. (Billy Gardell, the No. 1 talk show guest? Really?) At least Marshawn Lynch is coming back next week. He's a hoot. (Bob Costas was also a guest in February, but I guess that's okay.)

I think the NFL feels that having anybody other that Al Michaels do the game for NBC devalues* the Thursday night game, even though Tirico has helmed MNF for 10 years. They want each network's No. 1 team out there. (*Yes, Thursday night games are already devalued by terrible matchups and three days to prepare.)

Wait! What? The NFL has dragged its heels on getting a team back to L.A. for two decades, with teams using the second largest city in the U.S. to force their local taxpayers to pony up for new stadiums. People in SoCal were so hungry for NFL football that 90,000 attended a preseason game. Sunday's game is sold out, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are performing pregame. The Rams have sold out on season tickets. As for L.A. being an occasional college football town, click here to see how packed the Rose Bowl was this past weekend at kickoff for the UCLA home opener. 62,487 attended the USC home opener at the Coliseum, which will be filled with 90,000 fans for the Rams home opener on Sunday. merylinkid says, "There was no big uprising of the masses for a return." But you have to understand that there was no appetite for taxpayers to pay for a stadium, as other cities have been forced to do. So you have Stan Kroenke, who's willing to pay for everything, including a brand-new stadium. Just today, it was announced that he's footing the bill for LAPD security at all Rams games. There are 20 million people in the Los Angeles region. Of course, there's going to be a lot of people clamoring for football.

I read a feature on The Ringer today about how Sean McDonough went from being at the top of the sportscasting world at age 30, then went to less prestigious gigs, and now he's at the top or near the top again with the MNF gig.. Yet I don't get the excitement over him. His delivery is kind of dull.

That he looks like a future hall of famer after beating one of the league's best defenses.

I am doing something I thought I'd never do -- I'm watching both versions of the RedZone Channel (the Scott Hanson NFL Network version and Andrew Siciliano DirecTV version) at the same time. It is AMAZING. It's like getting high. OMG.

I'm watching Brother Nature, the new film starring Taran Killam that was just released Friday. Had no idea Lorne Michaels was its producer. No wonder he let Taran back in the building to promote it.

It's amazing that Taylor Swift got an Emmy before Amy Poehler! (I probably could go on and on about all the people who got Emmys before Amy.)

Taran Killam co-wrote his new movie (out today!) with Mikey Day. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4000956/ (Co-directed by the recently departed Matt Villines.)