This is a good weekend to decompress from football and sample some other sports we have not watched in a while.
At the top of the list will be NHL All-Star weekend (Friday-Sunday, Versus). Friday night is the All-Star fantasy draft at 8 p.m., when team captains Eric Staal of the Hurricanes and Nicklas Lidstrom of the Red Wings will choose from the pool of talent and select sides much like we did when we were kids. There likely will be teammates playing against each other. Saturday night is the NHL skills competition at 7 p.m., and the weekend wraps up with the All-Star Game on Sunday at 4 p.m.
Meanwhile, has anyone seen Tiger Woods lately? Well, he kicks off his 2011 PGA season in San Diego at the Farmers Insurance Open. The Golf Channel and CBS will partner for coverage of Tiger's return to the tour at Torrey Pines. It should make for some good TV. Woods has won five times in his career at Torrey Pines, including his last major championship at the 2008 U.S Open.
Golf Channel coverage on Friday begins at 3 p.m., and the broadcast moves over to CBS for the weekend. Saturday's action runs from 2:30?p.m to 6 p.m. On Sunday things start a little later, beginning at 3 p.m. and concluding around 7 p.m.
The Australian Open comes to a close this weekend on ESPN2 and the Tennis Channel. ESPN2 and ESPN3 will have live coverage of the women's final and men's semifinals if you like to get up really early (action starts Saturday at 1 a.m.). A replay can be seen on ESPN2 at 8 a.m. The men's final will be broadcast Sunday at 3:30 a.m. There will be a replay at 10 a.m. on ESPN2 and ESPN3.
Also this weekend is the 24 Hours of Daytona, which happens to be one of my favorite things to follow. The prerace show begins Friday night on FX at 11 p.m.The action begins Saturday at 3 p.m. on Speed, and we get a break at 10 p.m. The race action will pick up again at 9 a.m. Sunday on Speed and continue until 3 p.m.
Examiner columnist Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this!