what's next? a bridge tournament on tv?

Well, they'll make a tournament out of anything these days, won't they! From PR Newswire:

PartyGammon.com to Stage First Ever $1 Million Backgammon Tournament
The First PartyGammon.com Million Will Draw 128 Competitors to The Bahamas, Half Qualifying Online-Event to be Filmed for Worldwide Television

GIBRALTAR, July 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Offering the largest guaranteed prize pool in the history of backgammon, PartyGammon.com today announced that it will stage the PartyGammon.com Million at the famous Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island in The Bahamas, on January 21st-25th, 2007. Half of the field of 128 players will be filled by online qualifiers
and the other half from players who directly buy-in to the tournament.

The location will be familiar to long-time backgammon enthusiasts because it was the venue where the World Championships of Backgammon was at its pinnacle of popularity between 1975 and 1978, when the legendary Paul Magriel reigned as the leading champion. That event has now moved to Monte Carlo, but the $500,000 guaranteed first prize of the PartyGammon.com Million is estimated to exceed this year's World Championship top prize five times over! Read more.

I haven't played backgammon in ages. I used to love this game! However, a TV show? Isn't it bad enough that we have 10,000 poker TV shows? Then again, those poker players are such lookers for TV! Ugh!