As the season three premiere of “Eastbound and Down” grows nearer (February 19th), the cult of Kenny Powers continues to grow. Just this week, a high-school teacher in Tennessee resigned (via Buzzfeed), and at least 10 students were given out-of-school suspensions for playing a Kenny-Powers inspired game called “Take It Like A Man.” Basically, the game involves students taking it to the next level of sh*t and punching each other as hard as they can. One kid got a busted lip. To be fair, however, “Take It Like a Man” is a much better school-yard game than rape tag.

After inspiring the brave acts of a now disgraced teacher, however, Kenny Powers also took to Grantland in an effort to inspire even more greatness out of Tim Tebow, with whom Kenny Powers compares himself, noting that both Powers and Tebow have God on their sides.

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With only 18 days left to go until Kenny Powers brings the thunder all over again on February 19, HBO has released a full-length trailer for season three of “Eastbound & Down.” We see our first lengthy glimpse of Jason Sudeikis’s character, Shane-Dawg, a catcher on the Myrtle Beach Mermen who becomes fast friends with Kenny, much to Stevie’s chagrin. Elsewhere, jet skis are ridden, beers are shotgunned, child molester jokes are cracked, Confederate Flag boogie boards are surfed upon (and actually exist), samurai swords are drawn, and April’s “two enormous breasts” are looked…at.

This trailer is money, and I can’t wait until February 19. *Co*k thrust*

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“Eastbound & Down” returns on February 19, and as part of the run-up to the premiere, HBO has released this teaser trailer. It features pretty much everything you’d expect: Kenny Powers saying ridiculous things in front of children, Kenny Powers in a ridiculous costume, Kenny Powers shotgunning beers, Kenny and Stevie high-fiving, and April (CON BAMBINO!) making the “Dammit, Kenny” face. Basically, it’s everything you love about the show boiled down into a 30 second clip. I love it dearly.

One notable change in this upcoming season (outside of his new baseball team, the Myrtle Beach Mermen) appears to be Kenny’s choice of water-based recreational activity. It looks like he has traded in his jetski for a boogie board emblazoned with a giant Confederate flag. On the scale of The Most Kenny Powers Thing Possible, this is about a 7.

The scale only goes to 5.

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Yeah, the waiting is the hardest part...

I know we’ve been not-so-subtly complaining about the lack of TV news this week, but that’s only because we’re so close to the season premieres of “Justified,” “Archer,” and many of our other favorite TV shows — including “Mad Men,” some 500-plus days after “Tomorrowland.” And inevitable new favorites, too, like “Are You There, Chelsea?” and the exclamation point-less “Rob.” It’s tough to get excited about Ryan Murphy telling people to re-watch “American Horror Story” when you know Emmy Rossum doing body shots is right around the corner.

You can check out the full list of returning series after the jump, but for the crowd who only cares about when “Eastbound & Down” and other WG-approved shows are going to be back (I feel like this guy), here’s an abridged version, sorted by network:

ABC: “Happy Endings”/“Modern Family”/”Suburgatory” (Jan. 4)
NBC: “SNL” (Jan. 7), “30 Rock”/“Parks and Recreation”/“The Office”/”Up All Night” (Jan. 12)
CBS: “How I Met Your Mother” (Jan. 2)
FOX: “The Simpsons” (Jan. 8), “Fringe” (Jan. 13), “New Girl” (Jan. 17), “Bob’s Burgers” (Mar. 11)
FX: “Justified” (Jan. 17), “Archer” (Jan. 19)
AMC: “The Walking Dead” (Feb. 12), “Mad Men” (March)
HBO: “Eastbound and Down” (Feb. 19)
Showtime: “Californication”/”Shameless” (Jan. 8)

New shows worth checking out: FOX’s “Alcatraz” (Jan. 16), HBO’s “Angry Boys” (Jan. 1) and “Luck” (Jan. 29), Showtime’s “House of Lies” (Jan. 8) and “Inside Comedy” (Jan. 26), and FX’s “Unsupervised” (Jan. 19). And, of course, “Game of Thrones” (April), meaning: Pete Campbell vs. Joffrey Baratheon. Who you got?

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K-Swiss has a new ad campaign built around the idea of Kenny Powers as the company’s CEO, and I have to admire the balls it took to make a profane fictional character on pay cable the centerpiece of an ad campaign. As “MFCEO,” Powers (Danny McBride) has hired Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel to run the marketing department, UFC fighter Jon “Bones” Jones as head of HR, and “Biggest Loser” coach Jillian Michaels to taunt and yell at people — something that I always enjoy. I also approve of the gratuitous use of attack helicopters, explosions, and women in bikinis.

Other athletes in the new commercials are 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis, WWE’s Rey Misterio, UFC’s Urijah Faber, and Olympic hopeful Josh Cox (“Josh, stop not breaking world records”). I found a lot of these videos entertaining, and the campaign is a brazen departure from K-Swiss’s old brand identity, “boring white shoes for people who play tennis.” Videos on the following pages via Ad Week.

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