A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small number of broadcast networks. Many early television networks (e.g. the BBC, NBC or CBS) evolved from earlier radio networks.

In countries where most networks broadcast identical, centrally originated content to all their stations and where most individual TV transmitters therefore operate only as large "repeater stations", the terms "television network", "television channel" (a numeric identifier or radio frequency), and "television station" have become mostly interchangeable in everyday language, with professionals in TV-related occupations continuing to make a difference between them. Within the industry, a tiering is sometimes created among groups of networks based on whether their programming is simultaneously originated from a central point, and whether the network master control has the technical and administrative capability to take-over the programming of their affiliates in real-time when it deems this necessary — the most common example being national breaking news events.

Robert Anthony Rodríguez (born June 20, 1968) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor and musician. He shoots and produces many of his films in his native Texas and Mexico. He has directed such films as Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, The Faculty, Spy Kids, Sin City, Planet Terror, and Machete. He is a friend and frequent collaborator of filmmaker Quentin Tarantino.

Rodríguez was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Mexican-American parents Rebecca (née Villegas), a nurse, and Cecilio G. Rodríguez, a salesman. He began his interest in film at age 11 when his father bought one of the first VCRs, which came with a camera.

While attending St. Anthony High School, he was commissioned to videotape the school's football games. According to his sister he was fired soon after for shooting them with a cinematic style, getting shots of parents' reactions and the ball traveling through the air instead of shooting the whole play. There he met Carlos Gallardo; they both shot films on video throughout high school and college. After graduating Rodriguez went to the College of Communication at the University of Texas where he also developed a love of cartooning. His grades were not high enough to get into the school's film program, so he invented a daily comic strip entitled Los Hooligans with many of the characters based on his siblings – in particular, one of his sisters, Maricarmen. The comic proved to be quite successful, running for three years in the student newspaper The Daily Texan while Rodríguez continued to make short films.^{[citation needed]}

Meghan Marguerite McCain (born October 23, 1984) is an American columnist, author and blogger. She is a daughter of U.S. Senator John McCain and Cindy Hensley McCain. McCain first received media attention in 2007 for her blog, McCain Blogette, on which she documented life on the campaign trail and mused about fashion, music, and pop culture. In 2009, she became a contributing author for The Daily Beast, and in 2011, began appearing as a contributor on MSNBC.

McCain is the oldest of the four children of John and Cindy Hensley McCain. She has been a public figure for most of her life, appearing at the 1996 Republican National Convention.

She was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, and attended Phoenix Country Day School and Xavier College Preparatory, an all-girl Catholic high school. She attended Columbia University, where she earned her bachelor's degree in art history. McCain originally planned to become a music journalist and interned at Newsweek and Saturday Night Live.

McCain says that she is "a woman who despises labels and boxes and stereotypes." McCain also has described herself as a Republican who is "liberal on social issues". She registered as an Independent when she was 18 years old and she voted for John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election. She agrees with her father's positions on global warming and stem-cell research. At first she had doubts about the 2003 invasion of Iraq but subsequently supported her father's position regarding it. She has stated she is pro-life, in favor of sex education and birth control. She has chastised conservatives for hypocrisy regarding abortion: "They go on and on about how evil and wrong abortion is, but don't like to talk about how easy it is to not get pregnant."

Laura Jane Silverman (born June 10, 1966, in Bedford, New Hampshire) is an American actress/voice actress, and the elder sister of actress/comedienne Sarah Silverman. She is best known for portraying a fictionalized version of herself alongside her sister in Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic and The Sarah Silverman Program.

Ted Curtis Johnson (born December 4, 1972) is a former American football player in the National Football League. He grew up in Carlsbad, California where he graduated from Carlsbad High School in 1991. From there he attended the University of Colorado and was drafted by the Patriots in the second round of the 1995 NFL Draft with the 57th overall selection. He helped the Patriots reach Super Bowl XXXI and win Super Bowl XXXVI, Super Bowl XXXVIII, and Super Bowl XXXIX.

In his ten-year professional career, Johnson played in 125 regular season games and recorded 757 tackles, 11.5 sacks, one interception, 16 passes defensed, six forced fumbles, and seven fumble recoveries.

Johnson retired before the 2005 NFL season after sustaining many concussions during his career. He spent the 2005 season as a football analyst for Boston television station WBZ-TV, but resigned from the station in 2006.

On July 16, 2006, Johnson and his wife, Jackie, were both arrested after an alleged domestic violence incident at their home in Weston, Massachusetts, but refused to press charges against each other. The couple divorced in December 2006.