Versus is Good, I Swear

I’ve been slacking on the List posts the past few weeks. This one deserves its own: Versus.

It made The List previously (when it was called Bandwagon Jumping) thanks to a couple of Pac-10 upsets that were on the channel. I also appreciate the channel because ESPN did a terrible job at hockey and really didn’t care about it. The NHL is Versus’ #1 priority. The only thing better would be to have The NHL Network.

This week on Tuesday I happened to flip on Versus and found two shows that I think I’ll be back for next week.

Hockey Central
Sorry, a few minutes of Barry Melrose on SportsCenter does not satisfy my hockey needs. I also usually miss it because I’ve changed the channel because they are talking about the NFL or something else that I really don’t care to hear any more about. Now Hockey Central is no NHL2Night with John Buccigross. Still its a lot of hockey highlights and hockey talk that I could definitely use more of. Besides the big name players and the Flyers I don’t know all that much. Out of the professional leagues the NHL is only behind baseball in my order of preference. I just know more about the NFL and NBA because you can’t avoid seeing all the news stories about them. They also do live look-ins.

Now I only got to see the last few minutes, but I think I will at the very least add it to my DVR for next week. I can’t really be sure because the Versus site is terrible but it looks like Hockey Central is on Mondays and Tuesdays at 9:30 or 10, depending on the game on before it.

Sports Unfiltered with Dennis Miller
This show got some press when it was announced. I didn’t really care. Dennis Miller? What was his last show on, CNBC? Whatever it was I tried to watch it once or twice, but couldn’t. I did enjoy Dennis Miller Live, when I did get to see it. I thought he was a good choice for Monday Night Football. I turned out to be wrong.

The show was on after Hockey Central. He opened with an AJ Feeley joke, so I gave him a shot. Turns out he does a whole monologue of sports related jokes. A lot of them are even funny, who knew. He doesn’t go too crazy with his historical references. Well, for me at least. He might go with more sports history, which I don’t really notice. The real history stuff I notice because I will not understand about half of what he is saying.

Its a lot like Dennis Miller Live, he does the monologue and then goes into his rant, which was about all the sports figures getting into trouble. His guests were Michael Irvin and Denny McClain, pretty solid for a show I wasn’t even aware was airing yet and related to the topic very well. After that he does the week in pictures, also right from his old show and still solid. He had on Bob Costas, who wasn’t terrible. He had some guy go try bull riding, seems like he’s going to try stupid things each week. We’ll see about that segment. He ends talking to some guy in Vegas about his picks for the week. Drop that segment right away.

I was at least able to find a half decent show schedule for this one on the site. Tuesdays at 10 or 10:30 are new episodes and the replays run throughout the week. They might be on to something with this show. I can’t think of anything else like it.