title: Underworld (2003 film)

text: In 2000, Danny McBride met Len Wiseman through Nick Reed, who was the agent for both of them with intent for them to work together on a script the former wrote. While the plans for that film fizzled out, they did set out a plan to work together. Kevin Grevioux had graduated from Howard University with a degree in microbiology, but he developed a desire to study film in cinematography and screenwriting. He dropped out of graduate studies and moved to Los Angeles, where he became an actor. He came up with the original concept for the film, which was inspired by "Romeo and Juliet" alongside his college studies, which based vampirism and lycanthropy on a viral mutagen rather than mythology. McBride and Wiseman soon stepped in to work on the script, which they soon set out to make a trilogy of films. Each received credit for their work on the film, and Grevioux also appeared in the film as an actor.


title: Underworld (2003 film)

text: The film was the subject of a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by White Wolf, Inc. and Nancy A. Collins, claiming the setting was too similar to the "" and "" games, both set in the "World of Darkness" setting, and to the "Sonja Blue" vampire novels. White Wolf filed 17 counts of copyright infringement, and claimed over 80 points of unique similarity between White Wolf's gaming systems and the film. One of those points being that the vampires in Underworld "drink blood". White Wolf, Inc. also said the script was very similar to a story entitled "The Love of Monsters" (1994), which they published, written by Nancy A. Collins. In September 2003, a judge granted White Wolf an expedited hearing. The lawsuit ended in a confidential settlement.


title: Underworld (2003 film)

text: The film grossed $51,970,690 in the US and $95,708,457 worldwide. "Underworld" was released on DVD and VHS from Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment.


title: Underworld (2003 film)

text: "Underworld" has a 31% overall approval rating on film-critics' aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, based on 161 reviews. The site's consensus reads, "Though stylish to look at, "Underworld" is tedious and derivative." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Underworld (2003 film)

text: Roger Ebert said, "This is a movie so paltry in its characters and shallow in its story that the war seems to exist primarily to provide graphic visuals" However, some critics were more favorable: the "New York Daily News" praised it as being "stylish and cruel, and mightily entertaining for certain covens out there".


title: Underworld (2003 film)

text: "Salon" reviewer Andrew O'Hehir gave a mixed review, stating, "by any reasonable standard, this dark vampire epic — all massive overacting, cologne-commercial design and sexy cat suits — sucks," but that "at least it gives a crap", conceding that despite the movie's flaws, the complex vampire-werewolf mythology backstory "has been meticulously worked out".


title: Underworld (2003 film)

text: Lohner (born 1970), a bass guitarist, guitarist, and keyboardist who has recorded with Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson, contributed several songs to the soundtrack under the pseudonym Renholdër. Lohner included a song by Skinny Puppy, a Canadian industrial band; a song by The Dillinger Escape Plan, a US band which performs an aggressive, technical style of hardcore punk called mathcore; a song by US alternative rock/post-hardcore band Finch entitled "Worms of the Earth"; a song by The Icarus Line, a band known for its abrasive form of rock music; and Lisa Germano, an American singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who specializes in alternative rock and dream pop.


title: Underworld (2003 film)

text: Music critic Bill Aicher noted that the "soundtrack follow[s] in a similar gothic vein" to the visuals, and stated that it "does an excellent job setting the dark mood" by using "a veritable who's who in the genre", with an "impressive array of metal, hard rock, industrial, and otherwise gothic-themed tracks". Aicher noted that since "a majority of the selections [are] written, produced, or featuring Lohner, the album retains a sense of cohesion throughout, making it much more a complete product than has generally been the case with similarly-themed products." In particular, Aicher praised the rearrangement of David Bowie's "Bring Me the Disco King" (previously released in its original form on his studio album "Reality" earlier that month) as the soundtrack's strongest piece. This version of the song, which features Maynard James Keenan (from Tool and A Perfect Circle) and guitarist John Frusciante (of the Red Hot Chili Peppers), was praised by Aicher as "Dark, brooding, sad, and twitchy".


title: Underworld (2003 film)

text: A sequel, titled "", in which Marcus fully awakens, was released January 20, 2006. The prequel "", which gives more detail about the creation of the Lycan species and Lucian's hatred, was released January 23, 2009. A second sequel, "", was released on January 20, 2012, and a third sequel, "", was released on January 6, 2017.


title: London Calling

text: London Calling is the third studio album by English rock band the Clash. It was originally released as a double album in the United Kingdom on 14 December 1979 by CBS Records, and in the United States in January 1980 by Epic Records.


title: London Calling

text: The Clash recorded the album with producer Guy Stevens at Wessex Sound Studios in London during August, September and November 1979, following a change in management and a period of writer's block for songwriters Joe Strummer and Mick Jones. Bridging a traditional punk rock sound and a new wave aesthetic, "London Calling" reflects the band's growing interest in styles beyond their punk roots, including reggae, rockabilly, ska, New Orleans R&B, pop, lounge jazz, and hard rock. Themes include social displacement, unemployment, racial conflict, drug use, and the responsibilities of adulthood.


title: London Calling

text: The album was a top ten chart success in the UK, and its lead single "London Calling" was a top 20 single. The album has sold over five million copies worldwide, and was certified platinum in the US for sales of one million. It was also met with widespread critical acclaim and has retrospectively been named one of the greatest albums of all time. On "Rolling Stone"s list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, "London Calling" ranked eighth in the 2003 and 2012 editions, and sixteenth in the 2020 edition. In 2010, it was one of ten classic album covers from British artists commemorated on a UK postage stamp issued by the Royal Mail.


title: London Calling

text: On their second album "Give 'Em Enough Rope" (1978), the Clash had started to depart from the punk rock sound. While touring the United States in 1979, they chose supporting acts such as rhythm and blues artists Bo Diddley, Sam & Dave, Lee Dorsey, and Screamin' Jay Hawkins, as well as neotraditional country artist Joe Ely and punk rockabilly band the Cramps. The Clash's growing fascination with rock and roll inspired their direction for "London Calling".


title: London Calling

text: After recording "Give 'Em Enough Rope", the Clash separated from their manager Bernard Rhodes. This meant they had to leave their rehearsal studio in Camden Town. Tour manager Johnny Green and drum roadie Baker found a new place to rehearse, Vanilla Studios, in the back of a garage in Pimlico.


title: London Calling

text: The Clash arrived at Vanilla in May 1979 with no new songs prepared for their third album. Main songwriters Mick Jones and Joe Strummer had experienced a period of writer's block and had not written a new song in over a year; their recently released "Cost of Living" EP featured a cover song and three other songs that had all been written over a year earlier.


title: London Calling

text: Rehearsal were held in Vanilla Studios over mid-1979. The Clash began playing covers from genres including rockabilly, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and reggae. In contrast to previous rehearsal sessions, the band kept these rehearsals private, and did not allow hangers-on to attend. This seclusion allowed the band to rebuild their confidence without worrying about the reaction from outsiders, who were familiar with the band's punk rock style.


title: London Calling

text: The band developed an "extremely disciplined" daily routine of afternoon rehearsals, broken by a late-afternoon social football game, which fostered a friendly bond between the band members. The football was followed by drinks at a local pub, followed by a second rehearsal in the evening.


title: London Calling

text: The band gradually rebuilt their confidence, with the styles of the session's early cover songs setting the template for the diverse material that would be written for "London Calling". The band were also encouraged by a growing recognition of drummer Topper Headon's skills, which they realised could be used to perform music in a wide array of genres and styles beyond punk rock.


title: London Calling

text: The Clash wrote and recorded demos at Vanilla Studios, with Mick Jones composing and arranging much of the music and Joe Strummer writing most of the lyrics. Strummer wrote "Lost in the Supermarket" after imagining Jones' childhood growing up in a basement with his mother and grandmother. "The Guns of Brixton" was the first of bassist Paul Simonon's compositions the band would record for an album, and the first to have him sing lead. Simonon was originally doubtful about its lyrics, which discuss an individual's paranoid outlook on life, but was encouraged by Strummer to continue working on it.


title: London Calling

text: In August 1979, the band entered Wessex Studios to begin recording "London Calling". The Clash asked Guy Stevens to produce the album, much to the dismay of CBS Records. Stevens had alcohol and drug problems and his production methods were unconventional. During a recording session he swung a ladder and upturned chairs – apparently to create a rock & roll atmosphere. The Clash, especially Simonon, got along well with Stevens, and found Stevens' work to be very helpful and productive to both Simonon's playing and their recording as a band. The album was recorded during a five- to six-week period involving 18-hour days, with many songs recorded in one or two takes.


title: London Calling

text: The first track recorded for "London Calling" was "Brand New Cadillac", which the Clash had originally used as a warm-up song before recording. "Clampdown" began as an instrumental track called "Working and Waiting". While working on "The Card Cheat", the band recorded each part twice to create a "sound as big as possible".


title: London Calling

text: "London Calling" is regarded by music critic Mark Kidel as the first post-punk double album, as it exhibits a broader range of musical styles than the Clash's previous records. Stephen Thomas Erlewine said the album appropriated the "punk aesthetic into rock & roll mythology and roots music", while incorporating a wider range of styles such as punk, reggae, rockabilly, ska, New Orleans R&B, pop, lounge jazz, and hard rock. "Brand New Cadillac", the album's second track, was written and originally recorded by Vince Taylor and was cited by the Clash as "one of the first British rock'n'roll records". The fifth song, "Rudie Can't Fail" features a horn section and mixes elements of pop, soul, and reggae music together.


title: London Calling

text: The Clash's embrace of specific musical traditions for "London Calling" deviated from what Greg Kot viewed as punk's iconoclastic sensibilities. Speaking on the album, Jack Sargeant remarked that "whether the Clash completely abandoned their punk roots or pushed punk's musical eclecticism and diversity into new terrain remains a controversial issue." According to rock historian Charles T. Brown, the album led to the band's association with new wave music, while music academic James E. Perone considers the album "new wave rock".


title: London Calling

text: The album's songs are generally about London, with narratives featuring both fictional and life-based characters, such as an underworld criminal named Jimmy Jazz and a gun-toting Jimmy Cliff aspirant living in Brixton ("Guns of Brixton"). In the opinion of "PopMatters" journalist Sal Ciolfi, the songs encompass an arrangement of urban narratives and characters, and touch on themes such as sex, depression and identity crisis. "Rudie Can't Fail" chronicles the life of a fun-loving young man who is criticised for his inability to act like a responsible adult. "Clampdown" comments on people who forsake the open-minded idealism of youth and urges young people to fight the status quo. "The Guns of Brixton" explores an individual's paranoid outlook on life, while on "Death or Glory", Strummer examines his life in retrospect and acknowledges the complications and responsibilities of adulthood. "Lover's Rock" advocates safe sex and planning.


title: London Calling

text: Some songs have more widely contextualised narratives, including references to the "evil presidentes" working for the "clampdown", the lingering effects of the Spanish Civil War ("Spanish Bombs"), and how constant consumerism had led to unavoidable political apathy ("Lost in the Supermarket"). "London Calling", the album's title track and opener, was partially influenced by the March 1979 accident at a nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. It also discusses the problems of rising unemployment, racial conflict and drug use in Great Britain. According to music critic Tom Carson, "while the album draws on the entirety of rock and roll's past for its sound, the concepts and lyrical themes are drawn from the history, politics and myths associated with the genre".


title: London Calling

text: The album's front cover features a photograph of bassist Paul Simonon smashing his Fender Precision Bass (now on display at the Museum of London, formerly Cleveland Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) against the stage at the Palladium in New York City on 20 September 1979. Simonon explained in a 2011 interview with Fender that he smashed the bass out of frustration when he learned that the bouncers at the concert would not allow the audience members to stand up out of their seats; "I wasn't taking it out on the bass guitar, cos there ain't anything wrong with it.", Simonon said. Pennie Smith, who photographed the band for the album, originally did not want the photograph to be used. She thought that it was too out of focus, but Strummer and graphic designer Ray Lowry thought it would make a good album cover. In 2002, Smith's photograph was named the best rock and roll photograph of all time by "Q" magazine, commenting that "it captures the ultimate rock'n'roll moment – total loss of control".


title: London Calling

text: The cover artwork was designed by Lowry and was an homage to the design of Elvis Presley's self-titled debut album, with pink letters down the left side and green text across the bottom. The cover was named the ninth best album cover of all time by "Q" magazine in 2001. In 1995, Big Audio Dynamite (a band fronted by former Clash member Mick Jones) used the same scheme for their "F-Punk" album. The album cover for "London Calling" was among the ten chosen by the Royal Mail for a set of "Classic Album Cover" postage stamps issued in January 2010. The cover art was later parodied for the soundtrack to "Tony Hawk's American Wasteland".


title: London Calling

text: The album was released in the United Kingdom on vinyl on 14 December 1979, and in the United States on vinyl and 8-track tape two weeks later in January 1980. A gatefold cover design of the LP was only released in Japan. Though "London Calling" was released as a double album it was only sold for about the price of a single album. The Clash's record label, CBS, at first denied the band's request for the album to be released as a double. In return CBS gave permission for the band to include a free 12-inch single that played at 33⅓ rpm. Ultimately, the planned 12-inch record became a second nine-track LP. The final track, "Train in Vain", was originally excluded from the back cover's track listing. It was intended to be given away through a promotion with "NME", but was added to the album at the last minute after the deal fell through.


title: London Calling

text: Upon its release, "London Calling" sold approximately two million copies. The album peaked at number nine in the United Kingdom and was certified gold in December 1979. The album performed strongly outside the United Kingdom. It reached number two in Sweden and number four in Norway. In the United States, "London Calling" peaked at number 27 on the "Billboard" Pop Albums chart and was certified platinum in February 1996. The album produced two of the band's most successful singles. "London Calling" preceded the album with a 7 December 1979 release. It peaked at number 11 on the UK Singles Chart. The song's music video, directed by Letts, featured the band performing the song on a boat in the pouring rain with the River Thames behind them. In the United States, "Train in Vain", backed with "London Calling", was released as a single in February 1980. It peaked at number 23 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 singles chart and "London Calling"/"Train in Vain" peaked at number 30 on the "Billboard" Disco Top 100 chart.


title: London Calling

text: A UK-only cassette was released in 1986. A CD was released in the US in 1987, with a remastered version in the UK in 1999 followed by the US in 2000, along with the rest of the band's catalogue.


title: London Calling

text: "London Calling" was met with widespread critical acclaim. Reviewing the album for "The New York Times" in 1980, John Rockwell said it finally validates the acclaim received by the Clash up to that point because of how their serious political themes and vital playing were retained in innovative music with a broad appeal. "This is an album that captures all the Clash's primal energy, combines it with a brilliant production job by Guy Stevens and reveals depths of invention and creativity barely suggested by the band's previous work", Rockwell said. Charles Shaar Murray wrote in "NME" that it was the first record to be on-par with the band's hype, while "Melody Maker" critic James Truman said the Clash had "discovered themselves" by embracing American music styles. "Rolling Stone" magazine's Tom Carson claimed the music celebrates "the romance of rock & roll rebellion", adding that it is vast, engaging, and enduring enough to leave listeners "not just exhilarated but exalted and triumphantly alive". In a five-star review, "Down Beat" journalist Michael Goldberg said the Clash had produced "a classic rock album which, literally, defines the state of rock and roll and against which the very best of [the 1980s] will have to be judged." Some reviewers expressed reservations, including DJ and critic Charlie Gillett, who believed some of the songs sounded like poor imitations of Bob Dylan backed by a horn section. Garry Bushell was more critical in his review for "Sounds", giving the record two out of five stars while claiming the Clash had "retrogressed" to Rolling Stones-style "outlaw imagery" and "tired old rock clichés".


title: London Calling

text: At the end of 1980, "London Calling" was voted the best album of the year in the Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics published by "The Village Voice". Robert Christgau, the poll's creator and supervisor, also named it 1980's best record in an accompanying essay and said, "it generated an urgency and vitality and ambition (that Elvis P. cover!) which overwhelmed the pessimism of its leftist world-view."


title: London Calling

text: "London Calling" has since been considered by many critics to be one of the greatest rock albums of all time, including AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine, who said that it sounded more purposeful than "most albums, let alone double albums". "This epic double album, from its iconic sleeve to its wildly eclectic mash-up of styles, is surely the quintessential rock album", wrote "BBC Music" journalist Mark Sutherland. In "" (1990), Christgau called it the best double album since the Rolling Stones' "Exile on Main St." (1972) and said it expanded upon, rather than compromised, the Clash's driving guitar sound in a "warm, angry, and thoughtful, confident, melodic, and hard-rocking" showcase of their musical abilities. According to the English music writer Dave Thompson, "London Calling" established the Clash as more than "a simple punk band" with a "potent" album of neurotic post-punk, despite its amalgam of disparate and occasionally disjointed musical influences. Don McLeese from the "Chicago Sun-Times" regarded it as their best album and "punk's finest hour", as it found the band broadening their artistry without compromising their original vigor and immediacy. "PopMatters" critic Sal Ciolfi called it a "big, loud, beautiful collection of hurt, anger, restless thought, and above all hope" that still sounds "relevant and vibrant". In a review of its 25th anniversary reissue, "Uncut" wrote that the songs and characters in the lyrics cross-referenced each other because of the album's exceptional sequencing, adding that "The Vanilla Tapes" bonus disc enhanced what was already a "masterpiece".


title: London Calling

text: According to Acclaimed Music, "London Calling" is the seventh most highly ranked record on critics' lists of the all-time greatest albums. In 1987, Robert Hilburn of the "Los Angeles Times" named it the fourth-best album of the previous 10 years and said, while the Clash's debut was a punk masterpiece, "London Calling" marked the genre's "coming of age" as the band led the way into "fertile post-punk territory". In 1989, "Rolling Stone" ranked the 1980 American release as the best album of the 1980s. In the 1994 "All Time Top 1000 Albums", Colin Larkin named it the second-greatest punk album; it was also voted number 37 in Larkin's "All Time Top 1000 Albums" (2000). In 1999, "Q" magazine named "London Calling" the fourth-greatest British album of all time, and wrote that it is "the best Clash album and therefore among the very best albums ever recorded". The magazine later ranked it 20th on its list of the 100 Greatest Albums Ever. It has also been ranked as the sixth-greatest album of the 1970s by "NME", and the second-best in a similar list by "Pitchfork", whose reviewer Amanda Petrusich said that it was the Clash's "creative apex" as a "rock band" rather than as a punk band. In 2003, "Rolling Stone" ranked it eighth on their list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list. The rating dropped to 16 in "Rolling Stone"s revised list in 2020. "Entertainment Weekly"s Tom Sinclair declared it the "Best Album of All Time" in his headline for a 2004 article on the album. In 2007, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, a collection of recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance. In 2009, the album was profiled in the BBC Radio 1 "Masterpieces" series, denoting it as one of the most influential albums of all time.


title: London Calling

text: In 2004, a 25th-anniversary "Legacy Edition" was released with a bonus CD and DVD in digipack packaging. The bonus CD features "The Vanilla Tapes", missing recordings made by the band in mid-1979. The DVD includes "The Last Testament – The Making of London Calling", a film by Don Letts, as well as previously unseen video footage and music videos. A limited-edition picture disc LP was released in 2010.


title: London Calling

text: The edition was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from professional critics, it has an average score of 100 out of 100, based on 12 reviews. "PopMatters" hailed it as "easily one of the best classic re-releases yet", while "Paste" said "Epic/Legacy has outdone itself." However, "Blender" recommended consumers opt for the original edition instead, claiming "the demo versions ... sound like an incompetent Clash cover band rehearsing in a sock".


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: In statistics, naive Bayes classifiers are a family of simple "probabilistic classifiers" based on applying Bayes' theorem with strong (naive) independence assumptions between the features (see Bayes classifier). They are among the simplest Bayesian network models, but coupled with kernel density estimation, they can achieve high accuracy levels.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: Naive Bayes classifiers are highly scalable, requiring a number of parameters linear in the number of variables (features/predictors) in a learning problem. Maximum-likelihood training can be done by evaluating a closed-form expression, which takes linear time, rather than by expensive iterative approximation as used for many other types of classifiers.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: In the statistics literature, naive Bayes models are known under a variety of names, including simple Bayes and independence Bayes. All these names reference the use of Bayes' theorem in the classifier's decision rule, but naive Bayes is not (necessarily) a Bayesian method.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: Naive Bayes is a simple technique for constructing classifiers: models that assign class labels to problem instances, represented as vectors of feature values, where the class labels are drawn from some finite set. There is not a single algorithm for training such classifiers, but a family of algorithms based on a common principle: all naive Bayes classifiers assume that the value of a particular feature is independent of the value of any other feature, given the class variable. For example, a fruit may be considered to be an apple if it is red, round, and about 10 cm in diameter. A naive Bayes classifier considers each of these features to contribute independently to the probability that this fruit is an apple, regardless of any possible correlations between the color, roundness, and diameter features.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: In many practical applications, parameter estimation for naive Bayes models uses the method of maximum likelihood; in other words, one can work with the naive Bayes model without accepting Bayesian probability or using any Bayesian methods.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: Despite their naive design and apparently oversimplified assumptions, naive Bayes classifiers have worked quite well in many complex real-world situations. In 2004, an analysis of the Bayesian classification problem showed that there are sound theoretical reasons for the apparently implausible efficacy of naive Bayes classifiers. Still, a comprehensive comparison with other classification algorithms in 2006 showed that Bayes classification is outperformed by other approaches, such as boosted trees or random forests.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: An advantage of naive Bayes is that it only requires a small number of training data to estimate the parameters necessary for classification.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: Abstractly, naive Bayes is a conditional probability model: given a problem instance to be classified, represented by a vector formula_1 representing some features (independent variables), it assigns to this instance probabilities


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: The problem with the above formulation is that if the number of features is large or if a feature can take on a large number of values, then basing such a model on probability tables is infeasible. The model must therefore be reformulated to make it more tractable. Using Bayes' theorem, the conditional probability can be decomposed as


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: In practice, there is interest only in the numerator of that fraction, because the denominator does not depend on formula_6 and the values of the features formula_7 are given, so that the denominator is effectively constant.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: which can be rewritten as follows, using the chain rule for repeated applications of the definition of conditional probability:


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: Now the "naive" conditional independence assumptions come into play: assume that all features in formula_10 are mutually independent, conditional on the category formula_3. Under this assumption,


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: This means that under the above independence assumptions, the conditional distribution over the class variable formula_6 is:


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: where the evidence formula_17 is a scaling factor dependent only on formula_18, that is, a constant if the values of the feature variables are known.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: The discussion so far has derived the independent feature model, that is, the naive Bayes probability model. The naive Bayes classifier combines this model with a decision rule. One common rule is to pick the hypothesis that is most probable so as to minimize the probability of misclassification; this is known as the "maximum "a posteriori"" or "MAP" decision rule. The corresponding classifier, a Bayes classifier, is the function that assigns a class label formula_19 for some as follows:


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: A class's prior may be calculated by assuming equiprobable classes ("i.e.", formula_21), or by calculating an estimate for the class probability from the training set ("i.e.", <prior for a given class> = <number of samples in the class>/<total number of samples>). To estimate the parameters for a feature's distribution, one must assume a distribution or generate nonparametric models for the features from the training set.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: The assumptions on distributions of features are called the "event model" of the naive Bayes classifier. For discrete features like the ones encountered in document classification (include spam filtering), multinomial and Bernoulli distributions are popular. These assumptions lead to two distinct models, which are often confused.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: When dealing with continuous data, a typical assumption is that the continuous values associated with each class are distributed according to a normal (or Gaussian) distribution. For example, suppose the training data contains a continuous attribute, formula_22. The data is first segmented by the class, and then the mean and variance of formula_22 is computed in each class. Let formula_24 be the mean of the values in formula_22 associated with class "C", and let formula_26 be the Bessel corrected variance of the values in formula_22 associated with class "C". Suppose one has collected some observation value formula_28. Then, the probability "density" of formula_28 given a class formula_3, formula_31, can be computed by plugging formula_28 into the equation for a normal distribution parameterized by formula_24 and formula_26. That is,


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: Another common technique for handling continuous values is to use binning to discretize the feature values, to obtain a new set of Bernoulli-distributed features; some literature in fact suggests that this is necessary to apply naive Bayes, but it is not, and the discretization may throw away discriminative information.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: Sometimes the distribution of class-conditional marginal densities is far from normal. In these cases, kernel density estimation can be used for a more realistic estimate of the marginal densities of each class. This method, which was introduced by John and Langley, can boost the accuracy of the classifier considerably.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: With a multinomial event model, samples (feature vectors) represent the frequencies with which certain events have been generated by a multinomial formula_36 where formula_37 is the probability that event occurs (or such multinomials in the multiclass case). A feature vector formula_38 is then a histogram, with formula_7 counting the number of times event was observed in a particular instance. This is the event model typically used for document classification, with events representing the occurrence of a word in a single document (see bag of words assumption). The likelihood of observing a histogram is given by


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: If a given class and feature value never occur together in the training data, then the frequency-based probability estimate will be zero, because the probability estimate is directly proportional to the number of occurrences of a feature's value. This is problematic because it will wipe out all information in the other probabilities when they are multiplied. Therefore, it is often desirable to incorporate a small-sample correction, called pseudocount, in all probability estimates such that no probability is ever set to be exactly zero. This way of regularizing naive Bayes is called Laplace smoothing when the pseudocount is one, and Lidstone smoothing in the general case.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: Rennie "et al." discuss problems with the multinomial assumption in the context of document classification and possible ways to alleviate those problems, including the use of tf–idf weights instead of raw term frequencies and document length normalization, to produce a naive Bayes classifier that is competitive with support vector machines.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: In the multivariate Bernoulli event model, features are independent Booleans (binary variables) describing inputs. Like the multinomial model, this model is popular for document classification tasks, where binary term occurrence features are used rather than term frequencies. If formula_7 is a boolean expressing the occurrence or absence of the 'th term from the vocabulary, then the likelihood of a document given a class formula_3 is given by


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: where formula_47 is the probability of class formula_3 generating the term formula_7. This event model is especially popular for classifying short texts. It has the benefit of explicitly modelling the absence of terms. Note that a naive Bayes classifier with a Bernoulli event model is not the same as a multinomial NB classifier with frequency counts truncated to one.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: Given a way to train a naive Bayes classifier from labeled data, it's possible to construct a semi-supervised training algorithm that can learn from a combination of labeled and unlabeled data by running the supervised learning algorithm in a loop:


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: Convergence is determined based on improvement to the model likelihood formula_53, where formula_54 denotes the parameters of the naive Bayes model.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: This training algorithm is an instance of the more general expectation–maximization algorithm (EM): the prediction step inside the loop is the "E"-step of EM, while the re-training of naive Bayes is the "M"-step. The algorithm is formally justified by the assumption that the data are generated by a mixture model, and the components of this mixture model are exactly the classes of the classification problem.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: Despite the fact that the far-reaching independence assumptions are often inaccurate, the naive Bayes classifier has several properties that make it surprisingly useful in practice. In particular, the decoupling of the class conditional feature distributions means that each distribution can be independently estimated as a one-dimensional distribution. This helps alleviate problems stemming from the curse of dimensionality, such as the need for data sets that scale exponentially with the number of features. While naive Bayes often fails to produce a good estimate for the correct class probabilities, this may not be a requirement for many applications. For example, the naive Bayes classifier will make the correct MAP decision rule classification so long as the correct class is predicted as more probable than any other class. This is true regardless of whether the probability estimate is slightly, or even grossly inaccurate. In this manner, the overall classifier can be robust enough to ignore serious deficiencies in its underlying naive probability model. Other reasons for the observed success of the naive Bayes classifier are discussed in the literature cited below.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: In the case of discrete inputs (indicator or frequency features for discrete events), naive Bayes classifiers form a "generative-discriminative" pair with (multinomial) logistic regression classifiers: each naive Bayes classifier can be considered a way of fitting a probability model that optimizes the joint likelihood formula_55, while logistic regression fits the same probability model to optimize the conditional formula_56.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: The link between the two can be seen by observing that the decision function for naive Bayes (in the binary case) can be rewritten as "predict class formula_57 if the odds of formula_58 exceed those of formula_59". Expressing this in log-space gives:


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: The left-hand side of this equation is the log-odds, or "logit", the quantity predicted by the linear model that underlies logistic regression. Since naive Bayes is also a linear model for the two "discrete" event models, it can be reparametrised as a linear function formula_61. Obtaining the probabilities is then a matter of applying the logistic function to formula_62, or in the multiclass case, the softmax function.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: Discriminative classifiers have lower asymptotic error than generative ones; however, research by Ng and Jordan has shown that in some practical cases naive Bayes can outperform logistic regression because it reaches its asymptotic error faster.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: The features include height, weight, and foot size. Although with NB classifier we treat them as independent, they are not in reality.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: The classifier created from the training set using a Gaussian distribution assumption would be (given variances are "unbiased" sample variances):


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: The following example assumes equiprobable classes so that P(male)= P(female) = 0.5. This prior probability distribution might be based on prior knowledge of frequencies in the larger population or in the training set.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: In order to classify the sample, one has to determine which posterior is greater, male or female. For the classification as male the posterior is given by


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: However, given the sample, the evidence is a constant and thus scales both posteriors equally. It therefore does not affect classification and can be ignored. The probability distribution for the sex of the sample can now be determined:


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: where formula_68 and formula_69 are the parameters of normal distribution which have been previously determined from the training set. Note that a value greater than 1 is OK here – it is a probability density rather than a probability, because "height" is a continuous variable.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: Since posterior numerator is greater in the female case, the prediction is that the sample is female.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: Consider the problem of classifying documents by their content, for example into spam and non-spam e-mails. Imagine that documents are drawn from a number of classes of documents which can be modeled as sets of words where the (independent) probability that the i-th word of a given document occurs in a document from class "C" can be written as


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: Then the probability that a given document "D" contains all of the words formula_79, given a class "C", is


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: The question that has to be answered is: "what is the probability that a given document "D" belongs to a given class "C"?" In other words, what is formula_81?


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: Assume for the moment that there are only two mutually exclusive classes, "S" and ¬"S" (e.g. spam and not spam), such that every element (email) is in either one or the other;


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: Thus, the probability ratio p("S" | "D") / p(¬"S" | "D") can be expressed in terms of a series of likelihood ratios.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: The actual probability p("S" | "D") can be easily computed from log (p("S" | "D") / p(¬"S" | "D")) based on the observation that p("S" | "D") + p(¬"S" | "D") = 1.


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: In the case of two mutually exclusive alternatives (such as this example), the conversion of a log-likelihood ratio to a probability takes the form of a sigmoid curve: see logit for details.)


title: Naive Bayes classifier

text: Finally, the document can be classified as follows. It is spam if formula_92 (i. e., formula_93), otherwise it is not spam.


title: Leylah Fernandez

text: Leylah Annie Fernandez (born 6 September 2002) is a Canadian professional tennis player. She has a career-high ranking of No. 13 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), achieved on 8 August 2022. Fernandez won her first WTA Tour title at the 2021 Monterrey Open. As a 19-year-old, she finished runner-up at the 2021 US Open to fellow teenager Emma Raducanu, defeating three top-5 players en route to the final (including defending champion Naomi Osaka).


title: Leylah Fernandez

text: Fernandez was born in Montreal, Quebec. Her father Jorge is from Ecuador and is a former soccer player. Her mother Irene (née Exevea) is a Filipino Canadian. Her younger sister Bianca Jolie is also a tennis player.


title: Leylah Fernandez

text: On 25 January 2019, as a 16-year old, Fernandez entered the Australian Open girls' singles final, where she lost to the top-seeded Clara Tauson. On 8 June 2019, Fernandez defeated Emma Navarro in the French Open final to become the first Canadian female winner of a junior Grand Slam title since Eugenie Bouchard at the 2012 Wimbledon Championships.


title: Leylah Fernandez

text: On 21 July 2019, Fernandez won her first professional singles tennis title when she rallied to beat fellow Canadian Carson Branstine in the final of the Gatineau Challenger. Fernandez also won her first professional doubles title on the same date when she teamed with Rebecca Marino of Vancouver. The pair defeated the second-seeded team of Marcela Zacarías of Mexico and Hsu Chieh-yu of Taiwan. The following week, she made her second consecutive ITF final in Granby, losing to Lizette Cabrera of Australia.


title: Leylah Fernandez

text: Fernandez made her Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open. After qualifying, she lost in the first round to Lauren Davis.


title: Leylah Fernandez

text: She achieved the biggest win of her career the following week in the Billie Jean King Cup qualifying round against world No. 5, Belinda Bencic.


title: Leylah Fernandez

text: In late February at the Mexican Open, she qualified and reached her first WTA tournament final, where, after winning 12 sets in a row, she was defeated by world No. 69, Heather Watson. A week later, she upset Grand Slam champion Sloane Stephens to reach the quarterfinals of the Monterrey Open, losing to the eventual champion, Elina Svitolina.


title: Leylah Fernandez

text: In October at the French Open, Fernandez reached the third round, first by upsetting 31st seed Magda Linette in the opening round, and then defeating Polona Hercog before losing to Petra Kvitová, in straight sets.


title: Leylah Fernandez

text: Fernandez began 2021 without consecutive wins in her first four tournaments. However, in March at the Monterrey Open, she won her first four matches to reach the final, defeating Viktorija Golubic to win the first WTA title of her career. At 18 years old, she was the youngest player in the main draw, and won without dropping a set during the tournament.


title: Leylah Fernandez

text: At the US Open, Fernandez became a fan favorite due to her unexpected success as an underdog. She defeated the third seed and defending champion, Naomi Osaka, in three sets in the third round, former world No. 1 and three-time major champion, Angelique Kerber, in the fourth round, in three sets, and fifth seed Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals, again in three sets, to reach her maiden major semifinal a day after her 19th birthday. She then defeated Aryna Sabalenka, the second seed, to reach her first major final and also the first player born in 2002 to reach such a final. It was the third time in the Open Era that a woman defeated three of the top five seeds at the US Open. In the final, she lost to fellow teenager Emma Raducanu in straight sets.


title: Leylah Fernandez

text: Fernandez then made her Indian Wells Open debut as the 23rd seed. She first beat Alizé Cornet in the second round and French Open finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the third, before suffering an upset in the fourth round by Shelby Rogers.


title: Leylah Fernandez

text: At the end of the year, Fernandez was given the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award by the Canadian Press as its choice for Canadian female athlete of 2021.


title: Leylah Fernandez

text: Fernandez started the season at the Adelaide International. She advanced to the round of 16 where she was defeated by Iga Świątek, in straight sets. She lost to Maddison Inglis in the opening round of the Australian Open as the 23rd seed.


title: Leylah Fernandez

text: In March, Fernandez defended her Monterrey Open title, reaching her fourth final and winning her second WTA title. Beating Anna Karolína Schmiedlová, Zheng Qinwen, Wang Qiang and Beatriz Haddad Maia to reach the final, Fernandez won against Camila Osorio in three sets, saving five championship points in the final set. Fernandez also entered the doubles competition with her sister, Bianca Fernandez. They lost in the first round to Elixane Lechemia and Ingrid Neel.


title: Leylah Fernandez

text: Fernandez subsequently entered the Indian Wells Open. Receiving a bye in the first round, she advanced to third round after a retirement from Amanda Anisimova, where she won the second-set tiebreak, and defeated Shelby Rogers in three sets. She lost to defending champion Paula Badosa in the fourth round. Fernandez also entered the doubles competition, partnering with Alizé Cornet. The pair reached the semifinals, before losing to eventual champions Xu Yifan and Yang Zhaoxuan.


title: Leylah Fernandez

text: In May, at the French Open, Fernandez beat Olympic champion Belinda Bencic and 2019 French Open semifinalist Amanda Anisimova in the third and fourth round, before losing to Martina Trevisan in the quarterfinals.


title: Leylah Fernandez

text: A Grade III fractured foot acquired during her quarterfinal match with Trevisan forced her to miss Wimbledon after a first-round exit the previous year to Ostapenko.


title: Leylah Fernandez

text: At the Canadian Open, Fernandez lost in the second round to eventual finalist Beatriz Haddad Maia. At the Cincinnati Masters, Fernandez lost in the first round to Ekaterina Alexandrova.


title: Leylah Fernandez

text: Fernandez entered the US Open seeded 14th. In her opening round, Fernandez beat Océane Dodin, before losing to Liudmila Samsonova in the second round. With the loss of most of her points from reaching the final last year, Fernandez is set to fall outside of the top 30. Fernandez has also entered the doubles draws, pairing with Daria Saville in the women's doubles, with whom she reached the second round, and with Jack Sock in the mixed doubles with whom she reached the quarter finals.


title: Leylah Fernandez

text: Fernandez is sponsored by Canadian brand Lululemon for apparel and by French brand Babolat for racquets, currently using the Babolat Pure Aero racquet. In January 2022, she became the first global brand ambassador in tennis for Lululemon. Lululemon replaces her prior apparel sponsor Asics, which she will continue to use for footwear until Lululemon launches its tennis footwear line by the end of 2022. She is also sponsored by wireless telecommunications company Telcel/Claro, cosmetics company Birchbox, Morgan Stanley, and EasyPost. She also is a brand ambassador for Flair Airlines along with fellow Canadians Eugenie Bouchard and Felix Auger Aliassime. Additional sponsors include USANA, Microsure, and Cambridge Global Payments. In January 2022, she became a Google ambassador in Canada for the Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro as well as Gatorade Canada ambassador.


title: Leylah Fernandez

text: "Only main-draw results in WTA Tour, Grand Slam tournaments, Billie Jean King Cup and Olympic Games are included in win–loss records."


title: Leylah Fernandez

text: The tournaments won by Fernandez are in boldface, and advanced into finals by Fernandez are in "italics".


title: Leylah Fernandez

text: Fernandez's record against players who have been ranked world No. 11–20. Active players are in boldface:


title: Lovie Smith

text: Lovie Lee Smith (born May 8, 1958) is an American football coach who is the head coach of the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL). From 2004 to 2016, he served as the head coach of the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and from 2016 to 2020 as the head coach of the Illinois Fighting Illini. Smith has been to the Super Bowl twice, as the defensive coordinator for the St. Louis Rams in 2001 and as head coach for the Bears in 2006.


title: Lovie Smith

text: Smith was raised in Big Sandy, Texas and won three straight state titles as a star linebacker. He was named after his great aunt, Lavana.


title: Lovie Smith

text: During Smith's high school career at Big Sandy, he earned all-state honors for three years as a defensive end and linebacker. His team won three consecutive state championships from 1973 to 1975, including a 0–0 tie in 1974 versus G. A. Moore's Celina. In 1975, Big Sandy had one of the most dominant seasons in high school football history, as the defense allowed only 15 points (11 shutouts) all season, while the offense, featuring eventual Miami Dolphins running back David Overstreet, scored a then-national record 824 points.


title: Lovie Smith

text: Smith played college football at University of Tulsa under head coach John Cooper. He was a two-time All-American at linebacker and defensive back.


title: Lovie Smith

text: After graduating from college, he immediately pursued a coaching career. He was hired as defensive coordinator at his alma mater, Big Sandy High School, in 1980. A year later, he left for Cascia Hall Preparatory School in Tulsa in 1981 and 1982, coaching defensive backs and wide receivers.


title: Lovie Smith

text: In 1983, Smith began coaching linebackers on the college level, first at his alma mater the University of Tulsa (1983–86), and then at University of Wisconsin–Madison (1987), Arizona State University (1988–91), and the University of Kentucky (1992). He also served as defensive backs coach at the University of Tennessee (1993–94), and Ohio State University (1995).


title: Lovie Smith

text: Smith began his NFL coaching career as a linebacker coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Under the guidance of Tony Dungy, he helped develop the Tampa 2 defense. After spending five years with Buccaneers, Smith was hired as the defensive coordinator of the St. Louis Rams under head coach Mike Martz. While in St. Louis, Smith improved the Rams defense, which went from giving up a league-worst 29.4 points per game in 2000 to an average of 17.1 points in 2001. The Rams won the 2001 NFC Championship and advanced to Super Bowl XXXVI. The team ultimately lost to the New England Patriots in one of the biggest Super Bowl upsets of all time.


title: Lovie Smith

text: The Chicago Bears hired Smith as head coach in 2004, following the dismissal of Dick Jauron. Upon arriving in Chicago, Smith stated he had three goals: beat the Green Bay Packers; win the NFC North; and win a Super Bowl. He struggled during his first season with the Bears, as the installation of new offensive and defensive systems and a series of injuries, including a season-ending knee injury to starting quarterback Rex Grossman, contributed to a 5–11 record. Despite their poor offense, the Bears’ defense saw some major improvement, rising from 22nd in 2003 to 13th in 2004.


title: Lovie Smith

text: In 2005, history repeated itself when quarterback Rex Grossman suffered a serious injury during the preseason and missed a majority of the season. Despite Grossman's loss, Smith and Ron Rivera used a dominant defense and the timely play of backup quarterback Kyle Orton to earn an 11–5 record, after starting the season with a 1–3 record. The Bears defense finished second in the league in terms of yardage, while allowing the fewest points in the league.


title: Lovie Smith

text: The Bears’ dramatic turn around in the 2005 season earned Smith national recognition. He won the Associated Press NFL Coach of the Year Award that year. After returning to the field following their first round bye, the Bears played the Carolina Panthers, with a fully healed Rex Grossman as quarterback. Both the Bears’ offense and defense struggled to keep up with the Panthers, and eventually lost, 29–21.


title: Lovie Smith

text: Smith and the Bears’ management drew criticism in April 2006, by trading away their first round pick and drafting five defensive players. The preseason criticism increased when he named Grossman, who struggled to move the Bears’ offense during the preseason, as the Bears' starting quarterback. Grossman led the Bears to seven consecutive victories, but struggled during the later portion of the season. Smith stood by Grossman, stating "Rex is our quarterback" when questioned by the media. The Bears finished the 2006 season with a 13–3 record, earning the NFC’s top playoff seed. The Bears finished the season with the NFL's second-ranked scoring offense, and fifth-ranked overall defense.


title: Lovie Smith

text: Smith led the Bears to a 27–24 victory against the defending NFC champion Seattle Seahawks during the 2006 Divisional Playoffs, winning the first playoff game of his career. Later, a 39–14 victory came against the New Orleans Saints at the NFC Championship. Smith became the first Black head coach (and the second minority coach, behind Tom Flores) to lead his team to a Super Bowl, just hours before Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy, his good friend and mentor, became the second. The friends together became the first two African American head coaches to oppose each other in a Super Bowl. The Bears lost Super Bowl XLI, 29–17.


title: Lovie Smith

text: Following Chicago's successful season, Smith requested a pay raise. The lowest-paid coach in the NFL in 2006 at $1.35 million, Smith would have earned $1.45 million in the final season of a four-year contract. After a stalemate in contract negotiations, the Bears signed Smith to a new four-year contract worth $22 million on March 1. However, he parted with defensive coordinator Ron Rivera, who was not re-signed after his contract expired. Additionally, four other members of Smith's coaching staff also left the team.


title: Lovie Smith

text: In 2007, Smith, confident in Grossman's abilities, named him the team's starting quarterback over Kyle Orton and Brian Griese. After the team started the season with a 1–2 record, Smith announced that Griese would replace Grossman. Griese led the Bears to a 2–3 record, but sustained an injury in a game against the Oakland Raiders, which allowed Grossman to become the team's starting quarterback again. However, Grossman was later injured in the season, and temporarily relieved by Griese. Smith ultimately allowed Kyle Orton to finish the remainder of the season, who led the Bears to a 2–1 record. The team's inconsistency at the quarterback position and failure to establish a proper running game contributed to the team's 7–9 finish. While the team finished last in the NFC North, Smith was pleased that the team ended the season by winning their last two games. Bob Babich, the team's defensive coordinator, was also criticized for his play calling.


title: Lovie Smith

text: The next year, Smith and the Bears parted with their leading rusher Cedric Benson, passer Griese, and receiver Bernard Berrian. Smith declared Kyle Orton as the team's starting quarterback, who started the season with an upset victory over the Indianapolis Colts. The Bears proceeded to go 2–2, with two overtime losses. The team managed to avoid falling below .500 for the remainder of the season, but missed the playoffs after losing their season finale to the Houston Texans. Smith was pleased with the success of rookie running back Matt Forte and quarterback Kyle Orton, who finished the season with a 79.6 quarterback rating. After the season's conclusion, Smith demoted Babich and took over defensive play calling responsibilities. He was also reunited with his long-time friend, Rod Marinelli, who had lost his head coaching job with the Detroit Lions.


title: Lovie Smith

text: Later in the offseason, Smith and general manager Jerry Angelo had conflicting views on the future of the team's quarterback position. While Smith was content with Orton, Angelo was more interested in creating a long-term solution to the position. Angelo traded Orton and the Bears' 2009 and 2010 first round draft picks for Jay Cutler of the Denver Broncos. The team's high expectations were quickly grounded when the Bears struggled in the month of November, losing four of five games. The Bears were eliminated from the playoff race for the third consecutive year after losing to the Green Bay Packers during a Week 14 matchup. The loss marked the first time that the Bears under Lovie Smith had ever lost two games to Green Bay in a single season.


title: Lovie Smith

text: A week after the loss to Green Bay, it was reported that despite rumors about changes to the Bears coaching staff, Smith would remain the team's head coach. Jerry Angelo, the team's general manager, refused to confirm these reports when addressing the media the following Sunday. Smith finished the season with consecutive wins against the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions. His victory over Detroit marked his 100th game as the team's head coach.


title: Lovie Smith

text: After the season's conclusion, the Bears organization announced that Smith would return in 2010. However, the organization fired offensive coordinator Ron Turner and three other offensive coaches. Turner was replaced by Mike Martz, who had been the head coach of the St. Louis Rams when Smith was their defensive coordinator. Smith was relieved of his defensive play-calling responsibilities, while Babich was officially demoted as the team's defensive coordinator. The Bears would go 11–5, but lost to the Packers in the NFC Championship Game.


title: Lovie Smith

text: In 2011, the Bears went 7–3, but after losing quarterback Jay Cutler to a broken thumb, the Bears lost five straight, a first in Smith's career, and finished 8–8. At the end of the season, general manager Jerry Angelo was fired, and offensive coordinator Mike Martz resigned. Phil Emery, who worked for Smith during the 2004 season as an area scout for the Bears, became the new Bears general manager. Bears offensive line coach Mike Tice replaced Martz at offensive coordinator. In Week 13 of the 2012 season, the Bears recorded their 300th takeaway under Smith.


title: Lovie Smith

text: The Bears started the 2012 season on a promising note with a 7–1 record. The team's defense ranked first in takeaways, third in points allowed, and fifth in yards allowed. However, the team lost five of their next eight games. The Bears finished the season with a 10–6 record, but missed the playoffs for the fifth time in six years. On December 31, 2012, Smith was fired as head coach of the Chicago Bears. Smith departed the Bears with nine years of service, three playoff appearances, one Coach of the Year award, and one Super Bowl appearance. Prior to sitting out the 2013 season, Smith interviewed with the Philadelphia Eagles and Buffalo Bills regarding their head coaching vacancies.


title: Lovie Smith

text: Smith was hired as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' 10th head coach in franchise history on Monday, January 7, 2014. Talking about his first stint with the Buccaneers, Smith said: "We did lay a foundation for Tampa Bay Buccaneer football, there's a certain brand of football that you expected from us. That would be relentless, you play hard, physical, but there was a brand of football that you did get from us each week at Raymond James Stadium. It was hard for opponents to come in and win." Smith also interviewed for the head coaching vacancies held by the Houston Texans and Detroit Lions prior to taking the Buccaneers job.


title: Lovie Smith

text: On January 6, 2016, Smith was fired by the Buccaneers after posting a record of 8–24 in his two years, including a 6–10 record in the 2015 season.


title: Lovie Smith

text: On March 7, 2016, Smith was named head coach for the University of Illinois, agreeing to a contract paying $21 million over six years. In the 48 hours following the announcement of the Smith hire, the university sold over 2000 new season tickets and more than 400 new student season tickets.


title: Lovie Smith

text: When Smith's contract was approved by the university's Board of Trustees at their September 2016 meeting, $2 million of the salary was moved from the last two years of the contract and made payable in earlier years. Additionally, the contract provided for up to $8 million in performance bonuses.


title: Lovie Smith

text: On October 19, 2019, the Fighting Illini had their most significant win since Smith took over as head coach with a 24–23 upset over then #6 Wisconsin. In 2019, Smith led the Fighting Illini to a 6–6 regular season record and to their first bowl game since 2014. Smith was fired on December 13, 2020, after Illinois started the season with a 2–5 record. He finished with an overall record of 17–39 in five seasons at Illinois, including a 10–33 record in Big Ten Conference play.


title: Lovie Smith

text: Smith was hired on March 10, 2021, by the Houston Texans as their associate head coach and defensive coordinator under head coach David Culley, marking Smith's first time in the NFL since 2015, when he served as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In Smith's first season leading the Texans' defense in 2021, Houston recorded 25 total takeaways, tied for 10th in the NFL, while intercepting 3.1% of opponent passing attempts, the fifth-highest rate in the league.


title: Lovie Smith

text: He was promoted to head coach on February 7, 2022. Smith previously interviewed for the Texans' head coaching job back in December 2013 before they hired Penn State head coach and former New England Patriots assistant Bill O'Brien on January 3, 2014.


title: Lovie Smith

text: Smith, whose mother is blind because of diabetes, is an active supporter of the American Diabetes Association. He and his wife are also the founders of the "Lovie and MaryAnne Smith Foundation", a program which provides educational and life skill opportunities to worthy young people who otherwise face barriers in reaching their educational goals. He was the Grand Marshal for the USG Sheetrock 400 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway on July 15, 2007.


title: Lovie Smith

text: Smith is a devout Christian and has contributed every month to Brown's Chapel, his former Methodist church in Texas. In 2012, Smith was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, along with Bubba Smith, Dave Parks, Andre Ware, Mack Brown and Fred Couples.


title: Dennis Miller

text: Dennis Michael Miller (born November 3, 1953) is an American talk show host, political commentator, sports commentator, actor, and comedian.


title: Dennis Miller

text: He was a cast member of "Saturday Night Live" from 1985 to 1991, and he subsequently hosted a string of his own talk shows on HBO, CNBC, and in syndication. From 2007 to 2015, Miller hosted a daily, three-hour, self-titled talk radio program, nationally syndicated by Westwood One. On March 9, 2020, "Dennis Miller + One" show, launched on RT America. It ran twice-weekly and featured celebrity interviews.


title: Dennis Miller

text: Miller is listed as 21st on Comedy Central's 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time, and was ranked as the best host of "SNL"s "Weekend Update" by Vulture.com.


title: Dennis Miller

text: Miller was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and grew up in the suburb of Castle Shannon. He is of Scottish descent. Miller's parents separated and he was raised by his mother, Norma, a dietitian at a Baptist nursing home. Miller is reluctant to speak about his father, usually just saying he "moved on when I was very young." He is the eldest of Norma's five children, and in his early life often looked after the rest of his siblings.


title: Dennis Miller

text: Miller attended Saint Anne School, a Catholic elementary school. He was a shy kid. Miller's childhood pastimes included street football, backyard baseball, basketball at St. Anne's, and much television. At St. Anne's, he managed the Catholic Youth Organization basketball team for boys 15–16 years old. Miller's first inspiration to pursue a comedy career came as a child when he was taken to see comedian Kelly Monteith at a Pittsburgh club. After the show Monteith was kind enough to answer the young Miller's questions about being a comedian, leaving him thinking "Man, I'm going to work hard at this; ...seems like fun."


title: Dennis Miller

text: Miller went to Keystone Oaks High School. His two earliest childhood comedy heroes were Jonathan Winters and Tim Conway. By high school he had already developed a reputation for humor. At Keystone Oaks, Miller was a member of the Physical Fitness Club, and in his senior year he worked on the Keynote newspaper and served on the student council, but lost his bid for senior class president. During his senior year, he served as co-emcee for the Keystone Oaks May Pageant, themed "Once Upon A Rumble Seat". Despite Miller's reputation for humor, his actual personality at this time was one that was reserved, lacking self-confidence, and hidden under a layer of comedy. He graduated from high school in 1971 with the intent of studying to become a sports writer.


title: Dennis Miller

text: At Point Park University Miller became a member of Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity. Miller likened his social status at this period as being lower than Booger of "Revenge of the Nerds".


title: Dennis Miller

text: Miller majored in journalism. In the fall of his senior year at the university, he began writing for the "South Hills Record", mixing humor into his sports reporting. When the paper changed its payment structure to pay around an eighth of a penny per column inch, he quit. He graduated from Point Park in 1976 with a degree in journalism. He later reflected, "I'm just not that interested in other people's business and that's a tragic flaw in a journalist."


title: Dennis Miller

text: After college, Miller moved through several occupations, including a clerk at Giant Eagle deli, a janitor, a delivery man for a florist, and an ice cream scooper at the Village Dairy. Reflecting on his pre-comedy job history in a later discussion with Tom Snyder, he recalled leaving college and attending a real estate seminar at a "bad hotel," which consisted of a five-hour lecture without bathroom breaks. Near the end of the lecture, he was told that he would only be paid by commission, which made Miller say "I'm in Hell, I don't even know what I am going to do for a living here. I'm a nut case." Miller then worked as a delivery man for what he describes as "an all-gay florist." Leaving that job, he worked as an ice cream scooper. Miller recalled that he was twenty-one—five years out of high school and wearing a paper hat while working alongside teens excited about getting their driver's licenses. A spur to quit the ice cream scooping job was when the prettiest girl he had attended high school with came in and he was the one who had to take her order, which filled him with embarrassment. Miller later stated that at the time he feared that if he stayed in such jobs, his life would become a Franz Kafka novella, and it stiffened his resolve to start pursuing a comedy career.


title: Dennis Miller

text: Leaving the ice cream parlor, Miller joined the staff at Point Park's Recreation Room, where he was in charge of the bowling alley, video games, and running the air-hockey league. Air-hockey regulars nicknamed him "Clarence" after NHL Commissioner Clarence Campbell, or called him "Commish." When Miller's brother Jimmy was around, they referred to him as "Commush". A patron from that time recalled that Miller sat on pool tables telling jokes and honing his comedy to those in the rec room, which was the only place the commuters gathered. Miller and the other patrons closely followed the NFL at the time as it was the "era of the Super Steelers".


title: Dennis Miller

text: In 1979, after seeing a Robin Williams comedy special on HBO, Miller began to pursue his dream of being a stand-up comedian.


title: Dennis Miller

text: In Pittsburgh, Miller began a comedy career by performing at open-mic nights. He backed out of his first two attempts to perform at an open mic due to stage fright and anger with himself over the question of whether the drive to perform was a need for approval from others. When he finally made his début at the Oak's Lounge on Sleepy Hollow Road in Castle Shannon, most of Miller's family was in the audience to cheer him on.


title: Dennis Miller

text: In a later interview, Miller spoke of the stage presence he developed for his stand-up act to address his fears. (He emphasized that the comedy business will always be frightening as any error could spiral into the end of a career.) To compensate for his early fears, Miller said, "I got up there and acted like the guy I always wanted to be to get through it. ...It's a part of me, but it's not the real me." He kept his hands in his pockets to appear unfazed, or adjusted his cuffs during an audience laugh to give the appearance of indifference to approval. Miller pointed out that part of his act is to show a "hipper-than-thou" persona, but then purposely undermine it at regular intervals for comedic effect.


title: Dennis Miller

text: He began appearing onstage at the Oak's Lounge in Castle Shannon while working at the Giant Eagle deli in Kennedy. Miller lived without a car and without much money in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, hitching rides or taking buses. He continued to do stand-ups in Oakland and at places like Brandy's in the Strip District and the Portfolio on Craig Street, eventually saving up $1,000 which he used to try to fast-track his comedy career by moving to New York City. Once there, Miller had to bribe a landlord to give him a room for $200, then had to pay the security deposit of $250 and the first month's rent of $250. Thus, he spent $700 of his $1,000 savings on his first day in New York, for a sparse, bunker-like room.


title: Dennis Miller

text: While in New York he submitted a joke for a "Playboy" magazine contest for humor writing that was judged by an all-star panel including Rodney Dangerfield, Bill Cosby, David Brenner, Martin Mull, Art Buchwald, and Buck Henry. Of around 15,000 entries, Miller tied for second and his joke and picture appeared in the June 1979 issue of the magazine. Miller won $500 in "Playboy"s first annual humor competition with the following joke:


title: Dennis Miller

text: For the first year and a half of his comedy career, Miller had heavily relied on props during his act, but he felt this limited him and switched to using purely language.


title: Dennis Miller

text: Miller gained more exposure when he tried out for the New York Laff-Off Contest. The contest had 40 slots but 32 of them had already been filled by the top regulars who appeared at the three comedy venues sponsoring the competition. Some 350 people tried out for the remaining eight slots, some of whom had appeared on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson", "The Merv Griffin Show", or "The Mike Douglas Show". Many of the comedians Miller was up against had hours of crafted material, while he had fine-tuned around ten minutes. To his surprise and delight, Miller earned one of the remaining slots. For the competition itself he appeared at the Improv and received a standing ovation, moving him on to the finals. While he lost the Laff-Off, he was seen by dozens of talent agents, resulting in bookings at colleges and other clubs.


title: Dennis Miller

text: While he was working in New York City, "Hustler Magazine" listed Miller in a piece called "The 10 Funniest People in America You'll Never See on TV".


title: Dennis Miller

text: While in New York City, Miller supported himself by working day jobs such as bartender and payroll clerk, and by night made the rounds of New York clubs The Comic Strip, The Improvisation, and Catch a Rising Star. After about a year, he returned to Pittsburgh.


title: Dennis Miller

text: Having honed his stand-up comedy act, Miller transitioned to television, increasing his audience base.


title: Dennis Miller

text: Having gone through the comedy-club circuit, Miller returned to do his sight-gag routine back in Pittsburgh at Brandy's in August 1980. It was there that local television station KDKA-TV was shooting a piece for its "Evening Magazine" and offered him a job at the station. By the end of 1980 Miller was acting as a warm-up in the afternoons for KDKA's "Pittsburgh 2Day". He then began starring in humorous segments for the syndicated "Evening Magazine". By 1983 he had become the host of "Punchline," a Saturday-morning newsmagazine aimed at teenagers. In one episode he interviewed fellow comedian Pat Paulsen. Miller later reflected on this time, saying that "you have to start somewhere," and that he was "just pleased to be in front of a camera."


title: Dennis Miller

text: During this time Miller also performed stand-up in such New York City comedy clubs as Catch A Rising Star and The Comic Strip. While in New York, Miller saw a show by Richard Belzer and noted how he barked at the crowd rather than embrace it, was cutting rather than cute. Miller adopted this comedic philosophy.


title: Dennis Miller

text: During performances at comedy clubs in Pittsburgh, Miller befriended Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld. In 1984 Leno found Miller an apartment in Los Angeles and he and Seinfeld arranged a debut for Miller at The Improv. Miller resigned from KDKA and moved to Los Angeles to try to further his comedy career.


title: Dennis Miller

text: Miller's brothers Rich and Jimmy joined him in Los Angeles, taking up varied jobs around The Improv such as booking shows, acting as bouncer, and selling tickets. Jimmy became a power talent agent with Gold Miller, and Rich ran RCM Entertainment, booking comedians across the country.


title: Dennis Miller

text: In Los Angeles, Leno was a big influence on Miller, as he was to many upcoming comedians in the area at the time. Young comedians gathered at Leno's home late at night and he offered critiques with humorous, biting wit. Leno also taped television appearances of his group and showed them during such sessions while offering more humorous critiques. Miller later fondly recalled the time, saying it was like "sitting at his knee, querying Yoda".


title: Dennis Miller

text: Miller appeared on "Star Search", where he lost out to fellow comedian Sinbad after the two tied on judges' scores; Sinbad won with a higher studio-audience approval rating. Miller made his first appearance on "Late Night with David Letterman" on June 24, 1985 (other guests were Phil Collins and María Conchita Alonso).


title: Dennis Miller

text: Miller's big break came in 1985, when he was discovered by Lorne Michaels at The Comedy Store. Miller subsequently auditioned for "SNL" in Los Angeles, and did well enough for a second audition at Times Square in New York. About 70 people watched this second audition—this was most of the show's staff along with Lorne Michaels, Paul Simon, and Dan Aykroyd. Miller walked into a well-lit room and was told "Go ahead, you have eight minutes, Dennis." After the New York audition he went to dinner with Michaels and Jack Nicholson. Miller felt that this was just another aspect of his audition, to see if he could handle himself around famous people, so he "just sat there quietly".


title: Dennis Miller

text: Miller later recalled the conclusion of the meeting with Michaels: "He looked at me and goes, 'Would you like to do my newscast?'. And I said, 'Yeah, I would', and he said, 'Well, I'll see you tomorrow'. And then I walked out. And I remember thinking, 'My life has just changed.'" Miller had landed a spot on "Saturday Night Live", where he succeeded Christopher Guest as the "Weekend Update" anchor. The spot was supposed to go to comic Jon Lovitz, but Lovitz was scheduled for other parts on the show and needed the "Update" segment to do costume changes, so Miller was drafted to read the news. His comedy was apolitical before "SNL" but politics came easy through opening a newspaper and building a new act around a few headlines. He made his stage persona a bit sardonic, as he noticed people who had done the "Weekend Update" segment as nice guys quickly lost the role.


title: Dennis Miller

text: Miller began his fictional news reports with "Good evening, and what can I tell ya?" and closed with "Guess what, folks? That's the news, and I... am... outta here!" Fans of "SNL" became accustomed to his snarky delivery, high-pitched giggle, and frequently primped hair—idiosyncrasies that were spoofed by Dana Carvey, Tom Hanks, and Jimmy Fallon, all of whom have impersonated Miller on the show. When Miller left "SNL" in 1991, the anchor's chair was turned over to Kevin Nealon.


title: Dennis Miller

text: In 1988, Miller released a stand-up comedy album, "The Off-White Album", derived from an HBO special titled "Mr. Miller Goes to Washington", which drew heavily from the observational and metaphor-driven style he was known for on "Saturday Night Live", and showed glimpses of the political humor that influenced his later work. An HBO special, "Dennis Miller: Black and White", aired shortly after the release of the CD.


title: Dennis Miller

text: Although Miller spent much of his time on "SNL" behind the "Weekend Update" desk, he was included in some sketches and did a few recurring characters and celebrity impersonations.


title: Dennis Miller

text: Miller left "SNL" after the 1990–91 season despite being happy with his role on the show, and despite loving writing political gags for it, because he had turned 38 and his 18-month-old son Holden had made him want to strive for things to "make the boy proud." He had a late-night talk show in development, and it was believed that fans of Letterman would naturally be interested in Miller's show and prefer that over Leno's in that time slot. He told an interviewer, "I had a great gig and this came up. It seemed like an opportunity that doesn't present itself too frequently in your life, so I opted to take it. ...I wanted to see what other talents I had, so I decided this was the shot." Miller thought that his outspokenness behind the "SNL" desk on political topics and even on jokes not working out made the transition to talk show host a good idea. He also felt that the "SNL" studio audience never fully accepted him in skits as other characters, making him question his acting ability.


title: Dennis Miller

text: After it was announced that Miller would start his own show, he was a guest on "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson." Carson offered him some advice while reflecting on his own 30-year career from which he was retiring in May 1992. He told Miller to compete only with himself, not the competition. He appreciated the advice, noting "there's no class for this" and that he would have to learn on the job in front of an audience. In preparation, Miller sharpened his interviewing skills by practicing on the show's stage hands. He felt that the secret to interviewing well was listening to the guest rather than trying to set up jokes while the guest is talking.


title: Dennis Miller

text: As the date for the show's opening approached, Miller told an interviewer that he was both thrilled and "scared shitless" by the opportunity. He hoped to eventually relax enough to be entirely himself. He saw Carson's approach as the standard but hoped to be original. Between "SNL" and his new show, he did stand-up shows with Howie Mandel and Steven Wright.


title: Dennis Miller

text: In 1992, after leaving "SNL", Miller hosted an eponymous late-night talk show in syndication that lasted seven months. Launched in January 1992, it was an attempt by syndicator Tribune Entertainment to carve out a niche in the late-night television landscape after Carson's retirement from "The Tonight Show" that May and his replacement by Jay Leno. "The Dennis Miller Show" built an insignificant audience and was cancelled in July.


title: Dennis Miller

text: Beginning in 1994, Miller hosted "Dennis Miller Live", a half-hour talk show on HBO. The show's theme song was the Tears for Fears hit "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", and included a snippet of the song "Civilized" by the Rollins Band.


title: Dennis Miller

text: The show was taped at CBS Television City on the same stage where "The Price Is Right" is taped. It utilized a small set, sparse lighting, no band and Miller speaking to the largely-unseen studio audience from a darkened stage.


title: Dennis Miller

text: Miller hosted one guest per show, with whom he discussed the topic of the day. Early on, guests were all interviewed live via satellite, but soon most appeared live in the studio. There was also a call-in segment. The number was originally given as 1-800-LACTOSE. Later, he referred to it only by its numeric equivalent (1-800-522-8673). Within the time available, Miller typically could accommodate only two or three calls. He gradually eliminated call-ins in the last few seasons of the show.


title: Dennis Miller

text: Miller and his writing staff won five Emmy Awards during the show's run, which aired 215 episodes over nine years. HBO cancelled the show in 2002.


title: Dennis Miller

text: With the increasing popularity of cable television and its multiple channel and programming options, ABC's "Monday Night Football" found itself competing for viewers. One of its main competitors for its target young male demographic was professional wrestling.


title: Dennis Miller

text: ABC went through a series of different announcer combinations in rapid succession, trying to establish a booth dynamic that would recapture the public's imagination. By the close of the 1999 season, they were looking to make the fourth change in as many years. By the end of the 1999 NFL season, "Monday Night Football" had its ratings decline for the fifth season in a row. In an effort to turn things around, ABC fired Boomer Esiason, who had been on the show for two years. They also convinced Don Ohlmeyer, who had produced the show in the 1970s, to come out of retirement and gave him the authority to pick his own announcers. ABC Sports President Howard Katz told The Associated Press he felt ""Monday Night Football" was not as special as it used to be, and that's why we've taken the dramatic steps we've taken. We wanted to remove some of the sameness. We wanted to reinvent a little bit." Elsewhere Katz said "It may not work. We may find out that this is a bad idea. But I love taking the risk." Ohlmeyer set out to try and recapture the viewer excitement of the Howard Cosell and Don Meredith era.


title: Dennis Miller

text: ABC told the AP that each open position had around twenty viable candidates vying for it, who auditioned by sitting with Al Michaels (whom ABC had retained) and 'calling' the previous season AFC playoff game between Tennessee and Buffalo. Miller auditioned on June 12, 2000, sitting with Michaels in a Los Angeles studio to do such a mock broadcast. Miller's NFL knowledge surprised those in attendance. He had grown up watching the 1970s championship Steelers and was an avid watcher of the NFL draft. He had even inquired about an announcing job with Fox after they had acquired rights to show NFL games in 1994. Michaels later told an interviewer, "It was way beyond what we expected. I had no idea that he knew as much about football as he did. He made points that other analysts we brought in never made, and his points were more salient, more interesting, and better stated. He was giving his riff, analyzing the plays and providing the humor. Amazing would not be an overstatement. Then I thought, Maybe he's shooting his wad here, and that's all we're going to get. But he kept going. Hell, it was almost perfect. Don and I looked at each other and said, 'Wow. Where did this come from?'"


title: Dennis Miller

text: ABC told "Sports Illustrated" about the three-month process Ohlmeyer went through, including going through hundreds of tapes, slimming down to 40 candidates, and conducting 20 auditions (which included Jimmy Johnson, Bill Parcells, Steve Young, and John Elway). The "Los Angeles Times" noted that ESPN's Sterling Sharpe appeared to have been ABC's first choice but he had refused to return phone calls to ABC. Ohlmeyer had considered Miller early in the process, more as offering a rant segment within the broadcast, but he began to think of him in an expanded role.


title: Dennis Miller

text: By late June 2000, it was announced that Miller had beaten out Rush Limbaugh and Tony Kornheiser (among others) for a job as color commentator on ABC's "Monday Night Football". The "Los Angeles Times" called Miller's hiring "one of the boldest moves in sports television history," and noted that Miller, like Cosell, was "someone who is loved and hated," a person seen by some "as brilliant and witty; others see him as smug, pompous, and obnoxious." Show producer Ohlmeyer explained his thinking about hiring Miller: "Football is not played in St. Patrick's Cathedral. People watch football to have some fun. We want a telecast that's relevant, successful, and unpredictable. If it doesn't work out, no amount of buzz will save us." Miller praised the producer, saying "I admire Ohlmeyer's cojones ... I think I'm a pretty quirky hire. I admire him for that."


title: Dennis Miller

text: After the announcement, Miller appeared on the July 3, 2000, cover of "Sports Illustrated" with the title "Can Dennis Miller Save 'Monday Night Football?'" Miller told reporters that he would not try to dominate the show. He and Ohlmeyer said his role would not be that of a comedian. Miller stated, "I'm going to try to stay in the background and ask questions a fan would ask. The rants are my HBO show and I won't try to recreate that. I'm going to try to integrate myself in a three-man scheme."


title: Dennis Miller

text: Miller and the new broadcasting team (hold-over Al Michaels on play-by-play, Dan Fouts as analyst, and Eric Dickerson with Melissa Stark reporting from the sidelines) began airing through the preseason, starting on July 31, 2000, in the preseason Hall of Fame Game between the New England Patriots and the San Francisco 49ers. The show's official season opener was on September 4, 2000, with the Denver Broncos at the defending Super Bowl champion St. Louis Rams. Miller's performance at the official opener was met with mixed reviews. AP and "The Boston Globe" held that Miller had improved from preseason, but "The Washington Times" said he "comes off as being a smug, smarmy, smirking sort," and "The Toronto Star" suggested, "Send Miller back to the Comedy Channel. ... This guy just isn't very good."


title: Dennis Miller

text: Throughout Miller's football coverage his commentary was sprinkled with esoteric references. A common Miller-ism was after a Hail Mary pass fell incomplete, he would say "Hail Mary is denied—separation of church and state." He also once referred to "The Greatest Show on Turf"—the St. Louis Rams receiving corps—as the "Murderer's Row of Haste." Online options arose to offer definitions to references made by Miller on "Monday Night Football": a website called "Dennis Miller Demystified," "Encyclopædia Britannica"'s "Annotated Dennis Miller," and the "Shadowpack" (a "content aggregator, formatter, and e-commerce app") giving real-time explanations on personal digital assistant. Miller stated he was flattered by such attention.


title: Dennis Miller

text: As his first season progressed, Miller's critics held that "he sounds scripted." The show's ratings continued to decline; in 2001 the show had 16.8 million viewers, down from 18.5 million the year before and below the 19.4 million of pre-Miller 1999. As the ratings did not improve, writers from "Newsweek" and "USA Today" began openly calling for Miller to be let go. Despite the questionable ratings, Miller and Fouts signed a contract for a third year.


title: Dennis Miller

text: Despite having hired Miller and Fouts for another year, ABC began negotiations with veteran football commentator John Madden. Madden had worked at Fox Sports for eight years since the network had won the contract for the NFC Conference games away from CBS in 1998. Since getting the NFL contract, Fox had lost $4.4 billion (losing $387 million due to the contract in 2001 alone), and was looking to cut programming costs. Madden's contract for the next year would cost Fox $8 million so, when ABC was approaching Madden, Fox agreed to let him out of his remaining year. Despite having been hired for another year, Miller and Fouts were replaced by Madden, who was signed on February 28, 2002, for $5 million a year for four years. (Fouts remained with ABC, being moved to cover college football; Miller and Eric Dickerson were let go.)


title: Dennis Miller

text: Miller later reflected, "The football thing was fun for me. I was in the middle of a maelstrom and I just decided not to pay attention to it because, for me, getting hired was a freakish act of nature. I had never gone to a football game. ... I remember the day I heard that John Madden had quit Fox [and] I remember calling Dan Fouts that afternoon and saying, 'Get ready, babe, we're getting whacked.' ... I don't have any hard feelings." Elsewhere he said, "As soon as Madden left Fox, I pretty much knew I was going to be whacked. Here was Madden, the Pliny the Elder of football announcers. And they were going to stay with the kid? I was having fun. I had alienated half the community, and probably half of them liked me. Which is pretty much my batting average. I began to see maybe a decade ago that my career was never going to be in complete approval. I wasn't endearing." When asked about "the Dennis Miller experiment," Madden told "Sports Illustrated" that he thought people tuned into "Monday Night" to view the game and not entertainment; "If I go to watch a comedian, I don't expect a football game to break out." Al Michaels, while overjoyed to work with Madden, praised Miller, saying, "what he tried to do was the hardest thing ever attempted in broadcasting. No other non-football person or someone of that ilk could have pulled it off as well as he did."


title: Dennis Miller

text: In 2010, TV Guide Network listed Miller's stint at No. 12 on their list of "25 Biggest TV Blunders", while Awful Announcing put him at No. 1 in their list of the "Top 10 Sports Media Busts".


title: Dennis Miller

text: E! News later reported that MSNBC had considered Miller for a 2002 prime-time talk show, but instead went with Phil Donahue.


title: Dennis Miller

text: By 2003, Miller began providing regular commentary for the Fox News show "Hannity & Colmes". E! News reported that he was a serious candidate to provide commentary on the show, but the deal did not go through for unknown reasons.


title: Dennis Miller

text: CNBC had seen a slide in its ratings since Brian Williams was moved to NBC to replace retiring Tom Brokaw in its "NBC Nightly News". The network had not had a well-known personality in its prime-time lineup since the departure of Geraldo Rivera for Fox News in 2001. The nighttime audience for CNBC was smaller than its cable competitors, causing the network to look for a new direction. While it had been showing mostly business-oriented talk shows, such as "Kudlow & Cramer" and "Capital Report", NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker approached Miller with an offer to do a prime-time political show weeknights in CNBC's 9 p.m. (ET) slot, which placed him against Fox's Bill O'Reilly.


title: Dennis Miller

text: Miller accepted the offer and the show, produced by NBC Studios, began on January 26, 2004, called, simply, "Dennis Miller". CNBC announced that they were "comfortable with an unabashed Bush fan in the middle of its prime-time schedule in an election year." Their president Pamela Thomas-Graham said, "When we hired Dennis, we knew exactly what his political beliefs were and his viewers will hear them. The reason we hired him is we think he's witty, smart and interesting. He's part of a lineup. He's not the only person in the lineup." She contrasted his political leanings to that of John McEnroe's, whose own talk show followed Miller's in the lineup. The group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting objected that one of the show's producers was Mike Murphy, who was an adviser to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (Miller's first guest on the show), and charged that CNBC was setting up a conflict of interest.


title: Dennis Miller

text: Miller promised to serve as "'an ombudsman' who will tell it like it is and become 'incensed' on the viewer's behalf". Stylistically Miller was seen by some as "attempting to be serious, angry, and funny all at the same time," and the show was compared to that of Bill Maher. When asked if he had the credentials to do a quasi-news show, Miller stressed he was an entertainer. "I don't have credibility, I'm a comedian. I'm not Ed Murrow up on the roof in a London Fog reporting on the Blitz."


title: Dennis Miller

text: In the beginning of the series, Miller had a chimpanzee on the show named Ellie, who was declared a "consultant." After a few appearances Ellie was replaced by a smaller, friendlier chimp named Mo. Reviewers theorized Ellie was let go "perhaps because she pressed the Howard Dean 'scream' button on Miller's desk one too many times." Mo was noted for swinging across the studio on a rope, doing somersaults on the sofa while giving the appearance of reading "Variety", and for nuzzling Miller while he gave his monologue. Miller appeared to enjoy Mo's presence and his personality.


title: Dennis Miller

text: The hour-long show contained a daily news segment called "The Daily Rorschach," which were wordy riffs on news events, reminiscent of his role on "SNL"'s "Weekend Update" and his HBO show. Reviewers felt Miller's riffs would benefit from a live audience, and the show incorporated a "nightclub-style audience of 100 or so" beginning on March 9, 2004. A sign giving out the toll-free telephone number to order tickets was held up by Mo.


title: Dennis Miller

text: For the first half of the show Miller interviewed someone about a particular news item. "L.A. Weekly" remarked, "Miller may be up front about his own political affiliation, even to the point of shilling for the Republicans, but despite his increasingly aggressive America-first humor, he is unusually evenhanded in his selection of guests." Miller had laid out his vision for such interviews before the show began airing, telling The Associated Press, "I don't want it to be a screaming shriekfest. I want it to be a pretty reasoned discourse. I don't care what Gary Coleman thinks about Afghanistan, which to me was the flaw of 'Politically Correct' towards the end."


title: Dennis Miller

text: For its second half, the show also featured a panel discussion dubbed "The Varsity," which offered a wide variety of political viewpoints on current topics. Frequent "Varsity" panelists included Ed Schultz, Gloria Allred, Willie Brown, David Horowitz, Mickey Kaus, Steven Katz, Lawrence O'Donnell, Phil Hendrie, and Harry Shearer. In these segments, Miller acted "less like a host than a fellow conversationalist, and seems as happy to listen as to interrupt. But he does get in a few wisecracks." Miller was praised by "LA Weekly" for approaching the panel in a "relatively relaxed and straightforward attitude." Despite having "worked briefly as a commentator for "Hannity and Colmes" on Fox, he's far from being a Murdochian attack dog, and he often sits there and sucks it up while people tell him just how awful the administration of his beloved commander-in-chief really is. ... Miller, it turns out, is considerably more interested in 'diversity' than some of his liberal counterparts."


title: Dennis Miller

text: Fellow "SNL" alum Tim Meadows and "Last Comic Standing"'s Ant portrayed humorous field correspondents which served as a break between the political humor.


title: Dennis Miller

text: The show was openly pro-President George W. Bush, and it debuted at the same time that John Kerry had become the Democratic front-runner. The inability to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, a budget that was seen as out of control, and a resentment over the President's tough-talking cowboy image had all caused a major decline in President Bush's approval numbers. While Miller's rating started out well with his first episode interviewing his friend Schwarzenegger ("The New York Times" put the figure at 746,000 people, which was a big number in the eyes of CNBC), by March 2004 his numbers had slipped to 300,000. This was in contrasted to "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart, which attracted 1.9 million viewers, and which aired at the later time slot of 11 pm.


title: Dennis Miller

text: By April 2005, Miller's viewership had declined to 107,000 (a 59% drop from the year before). CNBC canceled the show in May 2005 as part of the network's move to refocus on financial news (airings of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and shows hosted by John McEnroe and Tina Brown were also cancelled). Miller's show was replaced with a second airing of "Mad Money with Jim Cramer".


title: Dennis Miller

text: Miller has appeared as a guest or guest star on various shows, including "Boston Public", "The Daily Show", "Hannity & Colmes", "NewsRadio", "The O'Reilly Factor", "The Norm Show", "Real Time with Bill Maher", "SportsCenter", "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives", and late-night talk shows "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno", "Late Night with David Letterman", "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson", and "WWE Raw".


title: Dennis Miller

text: Miller hosted the MTV Video Music Awards in 1995 and 1996. He was also the host of HBO's 1996 series of election specials, "Not Necessarily the Election".