With the Olympics in full swing, network prime-time TV has gotten pretty bland. You either get winter sports on NBC or you mostly see reruns on the other channels — all the more reason you should be watching GAC!

But all returns to normalcy next week once the Winter Games are over, and several country stars — Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley — will be right in the thick of it. Flatts and Carrie have acting roles on tap, while Brad will perform in a talk-show episode that has a little connection to history.

On tap next week:

• Rascal Flatts makes an appearance on the March 4 episode of the CBS drama “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” with Jay DeMarcus bloodied in the plot. “I don’t wanna give too much of the storyline away,” he says, “but from the commercial, you can tell there’s an attempt on my life and it happens during one of our live shows. And the story continues from there. We don’t know who’s done it, but it could be [Joe Don Rooney or Gary LeVox], it could be my manager. A lot of people have wanted to kill me over the years, so it’s pretty realistic!” Here’s the “CSI” mix of “Unstoppable”:

• Carrie Underwood has a role in Monday’s installment of the CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother,” and it seems like the only way to figure out the whole confusing mess fits together is… well… to watch it. She plays a pharmaceutical sales rep but ends up holding a small pig while dressed in a flight attendant outfit. “I’ve always been hot!” her character boasts in a sneak peek on the People website.

• Brad Paisley appears on “The Tonight Show” on Monday. Lots of stars make the rounds on the talk shows, so that’s not particularly unusual — except that this is the first night that Jay Leno will be back in his old timeslot after NBC’s ill-fated decision to move him into prime time last year. So Brad’s doing one for the history books. Here’s another bit of trivia for TV buffs: Who was the last country artist to sing on “The Tonight Show” during the Conan O’Brien era? That would be… Rosanne Cash.

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Zac Brown Band photo courtesy of Atlantic Records.

For the second week in a row the Zac Brown Band is sitting at the top of the Billboard Country chart with their third No. 1 hit, “Toes.”

Last night I tuned in to watch the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien and the Zac Brown Band was the featured musical guest.  And as would be expected, they performed their hit “Toes,” the original, un-edited version where they use the word “ass” in the chorus.   Yes, that’s right – they sang the word “ass” on national TV.

Earlier in the day I was listening to a local radio station here in Nashville and heard the same song.  But that version was the edited, PG-version that replaced “ass” with “toes.”    This switcheroo makes the song sound really silly…”got my toes in the sand, toes in the water…”  How can they be in two places at once?

So it got me to thinking, is “ass” really a bad word when used in a such an innocent way, describing some downtime on a beach somewhere?  There’s a long list of naughty words that no doubt should be “bleeped” or totally omitted, but is “ass” really one of them?

What side of the fence are you sitting on?  Leave a comment below and let me know.

Click here to watch the video for “Toes” »

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