First, Disney made a reported $125 million bid for the rights to the complete Bowl Championship Series, the five annual contests -- the Orange, Sugar, Fiesta and Rose bowls plus the BCS National Championship -- that ultimately determine college football's No. 1 team.

Fox, which has the rights to all but the Rose Bowl at a cost of $82.5 million per year, has upped its bid to $100 million. If Disney is successful, ESPN will air the games beginning in 2010. The Rose Bowl, currently airing on ABC, would likely also move to ESPN.

In a second potential 2010 coup, as reported in Sports Business Daily, ESPN is poised to snag the rights to all four rounds of the British Open. Turner cabler TNT now carries the first two weekday sessions, with ABC taking over on Saturday and Sunday.

Combined, the two gambits will dramatically shift Disney's sports emphasis away from its broadcast net. "There's no question that we're looking at the gradual obsolescence of ABC Sports," observed Rick Gentile, director of Seton Hall Sports Poll.

That process, said Gentile, began with ESPN taking over the "Monday Night Football" franchise from the Alphabet net in 2006 and the branding of events such as NBA basketball as "ESPN on ABC."

The transfers make financial sense for Disney, he added, as events that may struggle to make a profit on broadcast will have no such challenge on ESPN, which draws both advertising income and fees from cable operators.

"Their attitude is, if 'Monday Night Football' can be on ESPN and not on free broadcast television, then why can't these other events?" Gentile surmised. "And it looks better on the books at ESPN than on ABC because of the dual revenue stream."

ESPN declined to comment.

If the trend continues and ABC events like NBA basketball and the Indianapolis 500 eventually migrate to ESPN, Gentile ventured that it could call into question ABC's very identity.

Disney-owned ESPN says roughly 1.9 million households tuned in to watch the final table, compared with 1.25 million households in 2007.

The show's ratings were 18 percent higher than in 2003, when Chris Moneymaker won the tournament, World Series of Poker organizers said. Many poker followers point to Moneymaker's win as an amateur in the tournament as the beginning of a boom for the no-limit Texas Hold 'em tournament. Participation in the event grew from then until 2006, but declined in 2007.

Organizers changed the format of the main event this year so the final table could be played closer to its airing on television. Before this year, the main event would finish in July but would not air on television for months.

"What you did was create a must-see television event which ... wasn't the case the past few years when you knew who the winner was," World Series of Poker spokesman Seth Palansky said. "It was that whole 'Who will win?' element."

Most of the cast is attempting to flee a crowded nightclub that's slowly catching fire. Thick layers of smoke are quickly filling the room. Flickering flames are streaking up the walls. Pushy extras are hurrying to the nearest exit. And someone is still in the bathroom!

Much like the tornado that ravaged Wisteria Lane last season or the supermarket standoff the year before, the nightclub fire is the buzzed-about sweeps stunt that will engulf Sunday's episode. The blaze appears to have been started by this season's mysterious -- and perhaps villainous -- new neighbor Dave Williams, played by Neal McDonough.

"I personally don't think my character is a bad guy," McDonough said during a break from filming. "He's just damaged goods. Something happened to him that he just can't come back from. He has to take care of something. It's eating his life away. It's really interesting to explore a character like this, and it makes me feel very fortunate for my life."

Away from their usual Universal Studios street set, the cast have gathered for the scorcher inside Sound Stage 28. Meanwhile, on another part of the back lot, a nightclub facade is being erected that will later be burnt to a crisp. In true sweeps fashion, someone won't survive.

During production of the episode in October, the actor portraying one of those in peril found himself in danger in real life.

Gale Harold, who plays the boyfriend of Teri Hatcher's character, was in a motorcycle accident and fractured his shoulder. Script rewrites were ordered after Harold was admitted to USC Medical Center.

This fire isn't the first to threaten Wisteria Lane's residents. In the series' first episode, Susan Mayer (Hatcher) accidentally burned down the home of Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan), who retaliated in the second season by lighting up Mayer's place. In the fourth season, the naughty twin sons of Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman) confessed to an arson.

Is series creator Marc Cherry a closeted pyromaniac?

"Not at all," he says over lunch with Huffman a few days later. "I just like putting people in jeopardy."

He certainly does. Without much explanation, "Desperate Housewives" was thrust five years into the future at the end of last season. Inspired by "Lost," Cherry recalls nonchalantly pitching the leap to ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson during a baseball game last October. He said McPherson's initial response was: "Oh, that could be interesting."

Cherry let the idea percolate with ABC executives because he knew it was a "pretty risky proposition." After the fifth season premiered in September -- apart from a few flashback scenes -- there's been no going backward. What could have been a jump-the-shark moment ultimately reinvigorated everyone.

"I think it got everybody -- the fans included -- excited again," said Huffman, whose character battled cancer during the fourth season. "It certainly got the writers excited again. It all started on the page. The housewives all look younger though, which is a little weird, but the men look at a little older, which is really how it really should go."

The jump gave Dana Delany's tormented Katherine Mayfair, the center of last season's mystery, a place alongside the housewives at their weekly poker games. However, beyond her pairing with plumber Mike Delfino (James Denton) laid out in last week's episode, Mayfair has mostly served as the caterer sidekick to domestic queen Bree Hodge (Marcia Cross).

"I've gotten to do a lot more comedy," Delany said on her way to Sound Stage 28. "I guess I am hoping they will change it up a bit. I'm just honored they asked me to come back in the first place. The show has never asked anybody to come back for the next season, so I think they're trying to figure out how you fit in a sixth housewife."

Older counterparts for the children of Wisteria Lane were cast while the teenagers morphed into adults. Andrea Bowen, the 18-year-old actress who has played Susan's levelheaded daughter Julie since the beginning of the show, will return to Sunday's episode as a graduate student who's dating an older professor (Steven Weber).

"This whole five-year change has really shifted the vibe on the set," she said in her trailer. "It's spiced things up. There's the ability to do a lot more with these characters. For me, to come back in the middle of this has been interesting. I'm trying to get everybody to catch me up. I've been watching episodes like a regular viewer."

Cherry, who once worked as a writer and producer on the long-running sitcom "The Golden Girls," said he doesn't think "Desperate Housewives" will be doing any more fast-forwarding, but he does see an end to the series in sight. He's beginning to conjure up ideas for the sixth season and hopes the seventh season will be the last.

"I know what the last scene of the show is," teased Cherry. "I already have that in my head. I would like to end the series after seven seasons. The problem is we are one of the top-rated scripted series on ABC."

Cherry revealed that the final scene would feature just one of the housewives. Gasp! On a series where car wrecks, back-stabbing, murder, fire and other natural disasters are regular occurrences, it probably shouldn't be too surprising that, in the end, the show's mastermind may leave just one woman standing.

"After working in the background of every Muppet production, it's great to see the Whatnots finally land a starring role," says Kermit the Frog. "Whatnots helped make the Muppets what we are today. So, it's fitting that from now on, you can make these Whatnots whatever you want them to be....Just make sure they don't get between Miss Piggy and the camera."

For those unable to make it to FAO Schwarz NYC, the Whatnots are also available through the catalogue at FAO.com. Once your design is submitted online, your Whatnot will be built just for you, and shipped directly to you. Your Whatnot will arrive with a puppeteering hand rod and a clear, vinyl backpack so you can take your Whatnot with you wherever you go.

The Whatnots will be on the top of everyone's holiday wish list this year. The Muppets cross all generational lines and building your very own Whatnot is the perfect activity for kids of all ages!

About The Muppets Studio

The Muppets Studio, LLC (TMS) is a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS). TMS's mission is to ensure that this beloved, world-class brand franchise entertains audiences of all ages by leveraging Disney's best creative resources and worldwide distribution platforms. TMS plans to develop new content in all arenas, including television, feature films, internet, music and theme parks, and to enhance the Muppets global licensing and distribution presence.

About FAO Schwarz

What BURN•E does differently than most other Pixar shorts is it inserts itself into the story of the main movie, in this case WALL•E. So it really helps if you’ve seen WALL•E first. In fact, it’s practically a requirement. You see part of the short from perspective of the main characters in WALL•E as the story takes place, but mostly you follow BURN•E as he faces his sysiphean task in the background of the larger conflict.

“Humor usually comes about when result doesn’t match the expectation,” says Director Angus MacLane. “If everything in an characters’ life goes well it’s hard to relate to and probably not as funny.”

It’s a cute idea and MacLane really pulls it off well. As an Animator, Angus MacLane has contributed significantly to Pixar Animation Studios’ short and feature length films since his arrival at the studio in 1997. In addition to WALL•E and BURN•E, MacLane has worked on various award-winning Pixar films, such as Geri’s Game, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, For The Birds, Monsters, Inc., and Finding Nemo. For his work on The Incredibles, he was awarded the Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Character Animation. MacLane also supervised the animation on the Academy Award-nominated animated short film, One Man Band.

If you watch closely “there are a few small nods here and there to various sci-fi properties.” said MacLane. “I won’t go through all of them, but I will mention that there is a graphic on the elevator inside the Axiom that reads “ELV 426″ indicating that this is elevator number four hundred and twenty-six. This is of course (pushing my glasses up on my nose) a reference to LV-426 the planet that is the setting of the movie Alien and Aliens.”

One of the details I like is how BURN•E hums “Ode To Joy” to himself as he’s making the first repair. They’re able to bring that back full circle at the end of the short very effectively.

You can find BURN•E exclusively on the Wall•E DVD and Blu-Ray sets. It is available for pre-order now on Amazon.

The Hall of Fame coach, who joined ESPN as a guest studio analyst during last season's NCAA tournament, is expanding his role to include game commentary.
Asked during a conference call Wednesday whether he's nervous about trying to react quickly on the air, Knight cut off the questioner.

"I just spent 42 years figuring out instantly what the (heck) was going on out there," he said. "What I'm trying to do during the course of a broadcast of a game is going to be exactly what I tried to do when I was coaching: What is happening? Why is it happening? We don't like that happening -- how can we change it?"

Knight was already lobbying ESPN executives for the chance to call games during his stint in the studio last spring. He'll work a Thursday night game with Brent Musberger each week starting Jan. 15, and will call some nonconference matchups on other days with Dan Shulman.

His first game will be a 2K Sports Classic semifinal next Thursday. Knight will also appear as an analyst on College GameDay, SportsCenter and ESPN Radio.

Fellow ESPN analyst Jay Bilas, who has observed Knight running practices and watched game tape with him, vouched for his ability to quickly and concisely explain a concept.

"He can point out things that after he points it out, you wonder how you missed it and why you didn't see it because when he'd explain it, it seemed so simple," Bilas said.

Knight, who won three national titles at Indiana, resigned as coach of Texas Tech on Feb. 4. He was already spouting opinions Wednesday, though some of the non-basketball variety. Among them: Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell should win the Heisman.

Just don't try to tell him he's now a member of the media, a group with which he often had a contentious relationship. He's just "a coach that's talking about basketball," Knight said.

Knight mentioned Curt Gowdy as an announcer he admired, but said he wasn't trying to pattern himself after any other commentators.

"I hope I'm not particularly like anybody," he said. "I hope I'm like me. I hope what I do would be something that would be unique to the way I think about the game, the way I look at the game."