Young canines romp in 'Puppy Bowl III' Sunday at 3 p.m. on Animal Planet.

A few years ago, staffers at cablenet Animal Planet were pondering what to do as counterprogramming for Super Bowl Sunday. Suddenly, inspiration came from an East Coast TV tradition that has now gone national.

Recalls David Doyle, vice-president of programme development, "Someone said, 'How about if we do something like the 'Yule Log,' where we just point a camera at a roomful of puppies'? "

Those familiar with the Yule Log broadcast know that it is no more than footage of burning logs in a festive fireplace, to the accompaniment of seasonal music.

"Of course," Doyle says, "we couldn't do it that simply. We had to produce it a little bit. So we planted tongue in cheek and turned it into Puppy Bowl. "

Third incarnation

Now in its third incarnation, airing the afternoon of Sunday (the three-hour presentation airs four times in succession), Puppy Bowl is mostly footage of puppies romping around a miniature football stadium, with an assortment of toys and a referee who steps in now and then to call a 'puppy penalty' (OK, he's essentially a black-and-white-striped pooper scooper).

Last year, the show was jazzed up with the addition of the Kitty Halftime Show, in which kittens romped and napped to the accompaniment of disco glitz and glam. It returns this year - napping and all.

"The little kitties get tired," Doyle says. "That's why we only keep them out there for about 15 minutes. We don't want to overwork the kittens. The kittens play as much as they want to play. There's no real prodding of the kittens to play."

This year's puppies - beefed up to 33 from 22 in 2006, almost half of them from shelters in the Washington, D.C., area - are set loose in a bigger and better version of the Animal Planet Stadium, located at the network's headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. But, as before, the crowd in the stands is nothing more than an illusion.

"Still painted people," Doyle says, "but they're cuter this year."