NFL, College Bowls Highlight Weekend TV

This weekend’s live TV sports offerings kick off with the college football bowl season and a slate of Saturday NFL games.

Seven college football bowl games are scheduled for Saturday, including the Myrtle Beach Bowl (Georgia Southern-Ohio) on ESPN, the Cricket Celebration Bowl (Howard-Florida A&M) on ABC, R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl (Jacksonville State-Louisiana) on ESPN, Avocados From Mexico Cure Bowl (Miami (Ohio)-Appalachian State) on ABC, Isleta New Mexico Bowl (New Mexico State-Fresno State) on ESPN, LA Bowl (UCLA-Boise State) on ABC, and Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl (Cal-Texas Tech) on ESPN.

On the pro football field, NFL Network will air three Saturday games, including the Minnesota Vikings-Cincinnati Bengals, Pittsburgh Steelers-Indianapolis Colts, and Denver Broncos-Detroit Lions contests. On Sunday, CBS and Fox will air regional NFL games, while NBC airs its Sunday Night Football game between the Baltimore Ravens and Jacksonville Jaguars.

On the hardcourt, college basketball’s top 10-rated teams in action on Saturday include top-ranked Arizona against third-ranked Purdue on Peacock, second-ranked Kansas against Indiana on CBS, and fourth-ranked Houston-Texas A&M on ESPN2. Also in play are No. 6 Baylor-Michigan State (Fox) and No. 9 North Carolina-Kentucky (CBS).

In the ring, Showtime will air a “regular” super middleweight title match between champion David Morrell Jr. and Sena Agbeko. In the octagon, ESPN Plus will distribute the UFC 296 pay-per-view event highlighted by a welterweight championship main event fight between champion Leon Edwards and Colby Covington. 

On the links, NBC will televise weekend coverage of the PNC Championship pro golf event. On the soccer pitch, NBC, Peacock and USA Network will air weekend Premier League action. 

Also this weekend, TV Newser reports legendary TV news anchor-turned sports journalist Bryant Gumbel reunited with his former NBC News colleague Jane Pauley for an upcoming episode of CBS Sunday Morning. Earlier in his career, Gumbel spent seven years alongside Pauley on NBC’s Today — 1982 to 1989. The two recently sat down to talk about their friendship, Gumbel’s career and his future.

Gumbel also speaks with Pauley about Real Sports, his long-running HBO series, which ends next week after 29 years and 320 editions. He says he knew his contract was coming up, and when he asked himself if he could do another three years, the answer was no.

As for Pauley, the CBS Sunday Morning host was the co-anchor of NBC’s Today show for 13 years starting in 1976, first with Tom Brokaw and later with Gumbel. She then anchored Dateline NBC from 1992 to 2003 and served as an on-and-off contributor to Today before joining CBS News in 2014 as a contributor to CBS Sunday Morning. She replaced Charles Osgood as the permanent CBS Sunday Morning host in October 2016, a role she holds to this day.

And Saturday at 9pm on Fox News, ‘One Nation’ host Brian Kilmeade interviews former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who says Congress has ‘work to do’ before his resignation at the end of 2023.