Nothing says TCA like stars in awkward situations. (See pic at left of "House" star Hugh Laurie in a bumper car at Fox's TCA party on the Santa Monica pier last summer.)

Yep, the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour is upon us, starting Tuesday at the Beverly Hilton hotel. The January TCA gathering was scuttled by the writers strike, so undoubtedly there will be pent-up excitement (agitation? irritation? ultra-obnoxious lines of questioning?) than usual among the scribes, execs and stars who make TCA go 'round.

As we did last year, On the Air will offer team coverage of this fortnight of frothing about shows to come and the strike-interrupted season that just was, and any other issues that crop up between Tuesday and July 22. Variety's Stuart Levine plans to park himself at the BevHilton for the duration, while our TV leader, Michael Schneider, reporter Daniel Frankel and myself will also be availing ourselves of the hotel's free Wi-Fi to cover the events...and drink. I'm guessing it's a safe bet that the tradition of TCA bingo (in which attendees track the over-use of buzz words by panelists) will include the phrase "writers strike" this year.

It all starts Tuesday with a heavy rotation of cable presentations, including Hallmark Channel, HD Net, BBC America and E! nets.

Wednesday's lineup includes: AMC and WE; MTV Networks; A&E Networks

Thursday: Discovery Networks; ESPN; Sundance Channel; HBO

Friday: Turner Broadcasting; Fox Reality Channel; Starz; Lifetime

Saturday-Sunday: PBS -- whose talent roster includes none other than Sir George Martin, plugging his series "On Record: The Soundtrack of Our Lives."

And so it begins, the shutdown scenario no one wanted to see. Sunday's marathon talks between writers and producers couldn't move the sides close enough together to prevent the pickets from going up all over town and key sites in Gotham (click here for the WGA's list of L.A. picket sites).

No new talks are on the horizon, as Variety's Dave McNary reports, but here's to hoping that will change soon. The local weather report forecasts a cooling trend during the next few days for the L.A. area, but we all know the temperature is going to rise several degrees as those pickets hit the street at 9 a.m. Of course, the big question now is how the Teamsters-repped showbiz workers react to pickets, and how showrunners and the multihyphenates a la "The Office" writer-thesps respond to a professional dilemma, as Variety's Josef Adalian and Michael Schneider report.

For a flavor of how workaday scribes are feeling during this season of discontent, check out United Hollywood, a blog maintained by several WGA members. And check Variety.com all day for updates.

Some Emmy tidbits I really should have written up Sunday night before going off to parties:

Consistency, thy name is David Chase. "It's open to interpretation," the "Sopranos" creator said backstage at the Emmys when asked, inevitably and more than once, about the series' famed blackout finale. In a convoluted way, after being pressed by multiple questioners, Chase seemed to say that he knew in his mind what happened to the family, but he had no intention of sharing it with the intimate room full 200 or so reporters. Chase did say that he'd had the notion to take the show out in the way that he did for a long time....

Earlier in the night Alan Taylor told us backstage scribblers that Chase was pleased by the fact that even members of "Sopranos'" production crew debated what the finale really meant. Chase wanted it to be something people would chew over and talk about, Taylor said...

And as for the Emmy snub of James Gandolfini after the tour de force he turned in? Paulie Walnuts had his back, backstage on Sunday. "I think it was a shame. He should've won tonight...but we won all around (for drama series)," Tony Sirico (pictured right) said. "We've been honored. I speak for Jimmy when I say he can handle it." .....

America Ferrera was such a doll in the backstage quip room. She displayed her usual humility and gratitude for the career-making break that "Ugly Betty" has been for her. And she's happy that her star turn has come on a show that is light and frothy on the outside but meaningful on the inside, where it counts, by challenging the conventional notions of beauty and body image for women.
"It's fun and it's funny and entertaining and I feel so incredibly blessed," Ferrera said. "To be acknowledged for it, to know peep are watching it and enjoying it -- it's just a dream for me. This is what I have wanted to do since I was 5 years old. It just reassures me in the power of dreaming. Now I can set my (career) heights even higher." And she was channeling the self-assured Betty Suarez when a questioner tried to pry into her love life. "I don't talk about my personal life. Thank you," she said in a Betty-esque polite-but-firm tone....

Don't ask Terry O'Quinn what's going on in "Lost" in its upcoming fourth season, because he doesn't know. Is John Locke really Jacob? Is he going to somehow kill Jack? Will he ever get near a shower again? I'm telling ya, don't ask because Quinn doesn't know. (And no, winning an Emmy doesn't entitle him to a few free plot points.) Backstage after his win for supporting drama actor, Locke showed off his hot pink shirt and black tie with glittery rhinestones. When asked, Quinn admitted that early on in the show's run he would go on the Internet to see what the fans were speculating about the Deeper Meaning of it all and where the castaways were headed. But not any more. "I'm sated," he said....

Sally Field was feeling strong, confident and not ready to suffer any cliches on Sunday. She made fast work of a question about actresses of a certain (out-of-the-demo) age enjoying a renaissance on cable ("The Closer," "Damages," "Saving Grace," etc.) and why aren't there better roles for women in features and blah blah blah...."I don't listen to any of that stuff. You guys are the ones who are listening to that," Field shot back.

Where fore art thou, Oscar? Jon Stewart had a cheeky response for the reporter who just had to know what it meant to him to be asked to host the Academy Awards a second time. "Whatever emotional hole I had in my soul vanished at that moment and I was complete," he deadpanned. "That's why I decided to do it."...

And thus brings to a close this inaugural edition of live blogging at the Emmys. I'd be remiss without giving a special thank you to the shooters of WireImage, who moved Emmy photos lickity-split last night and thus livened up this blog considerably. Honorable mentions go out to Steve Granitz, Jeffrey Mayer, John Shearer, Jeff Vespa and Todd Williamson.

For anyone who wants to test-drive the experience of being a television writer, Matt Selman has an easy solution.

Get a group of your most sarcastic friends together in a room, preferably windowless, and try to make each other laugh by outdoing one another with a steady stream of the most offensive, sophomoric and vulgar set of jokes and set-ups that you can possibly imagine -- things that could never air on TV, not even pay cable. Add in lots of takeout food and soft drinks and repeat for a few weeks on end. If your heart soars and body tingles every time you make the room snicker, you just might be cut out to be a television writer.

At least that's the quick-and-easy career counseling that Selman (pictured right), an Emmy-winning scribe for "The Simpsons" and co-writer of "The Simpsons Movie," offered Tuesday night during the "Sublime Primetime" dish sesh with a clutch of Emmy-nommed scribes, hosted by the WGA West and Variety at the Writers Guild Theater in BevHills.

"Don't wait for the industry to give you money," Selman instructed. "Take any opportunity to (try writing). The joy of writing is just as fun to do ... if you're on the worst show on television or the best show...Find a group of friends and make each other laugh. Riff off each other. Go on super-offensive runs about degrading subjects."

Not much of an upset Saturday night during the first leg of the Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony as HBO's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" maintained its trophy market share with a total of five wins, followed by Discovery Channel's "Planet Earth" (wha?) and NBC's "Tony Bennett: An American Classic" with four apiece. (For a proper report on who-won-what, click here for the report from Variety's Jeff Sneider, who sacrificed his Saturday night so that you and I wouldn't have to.)

Contrary to conventional wisdom the Creative Arts ceremony isn't all craft and tech honors (though let it be said here that the below-the-line folks are not only H'wood's salt of the earth but its true artisans). NBC nearly swept the guest-star awards categories, which can be a handy career reviver for the right actor at the right moment if the sun and the moon and the stars align...

Elaine Stritch (pictured left) bagged the guest actress in a comedy trophy for her turns in "30 Rock." Leslie Caron (pictured right) took the drama trophy for her one-shot on "Law & Order: SVU." John Goodman's visits to "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" were recognized for guest actor in a drama, while Stanley Tucci (pictured above) got the nod on the comedy side for having fun with the great Tony Shalhoub on "Monk." (So if you count USA Network as one of "the networks of NBC Universal," as the Peacock likes to put it, NBC U did sweep the category. That bit of bragging rights and a dollar will buy you a cup of coffee at Musso & Franks...)

(Pics of Stritch and Caron on Creative Arts Emmy red carpet by Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage)

In an effort to rev up for the fall season, it's time to inaugurate what I intend to make a regular feature of this blog, namely lots of video snippets from our favorite, and even not-so-favorite and we're-not-sure-yet, shows.

Let's call it Clip Madness. (This edition was made possible by the kind folks at Fox and ABC who helped me quickly wrangle some clips. In subsequent weeks we'll spread the spotlight around to all the nets that care to offer up easy-to-embed snippets.)

Clip Madness is presented in the spirit of this wonderful time of year, the tail end of the honeymoon period when every new show is full of promise, this year's sleeper, a new "Friends," the next "CSI," a slow-building gem a la "The Office," etc. etc. Showrunners are starting to stock up on Mylanta, vodka and Vicodin, but network marketing mavens are in their element as they head into the final now-or-never stretch of piquing the American public's interest in what the programming department came up with this year.

(Pictured above: A scene you're not likely to see on ABC's "Pushing Daisies," for reasons that will become clear in the clip posted below. Pic of actors Lee Pace and Anna Friel kissing comes from the Aug. 16 screening of "Daisies" at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.)

CBS' upcoming reality show "Kid Nation" has generated a fair amount of pre-season buzz because of its provocative conceit of sending 40 kids to a remote spot in Bonanza, N.M. to fend for themselves, "Lord of the Flies" style. (Click here for a promo clip.) The show's sesh during last month's Television Critics Assn. press tour caused quite a hubbub among TV scribes, who questioned the propriety of the whole concept, among other things. (Variety's Brian Lowry was among the first to opine on the matter in this column from May. And Variety's Joe Adalian was the first to break the news of the show to the world a few weeks earlier just before CBS unveiled it at its upfront.)

CBS isn't backing away from any of the drama, billing the show as "40 Kids, 40 Days, No Parents." Ostensible goal is for the tykes and teens (aged 8-15) to "form a new society in a ghost town that died in the 19th century." And generate ratings to help kick off CBS' fall slate. According to Eye's press materials, there'll be no eliminations on this show, only a Town Hall meeting at the end of each seg in which kids can say bye-bye and head home if they want to.

CBS is promising that the reality moppets will create their "government" with four kid leaders selected from the group, and the whole bunch of them will tough it out frontier-style (with only camera crews to keep them company), cooking their own meals, scrubbing their own outhouses and running their own establishments including the town saloon. Soft drinks only, natch. The end game is for the kids to decide who gets the $20,000 Gold Star. I guess the lure for adult viewers will be to pick which kids are going to have a major case of homesickness, and how quickly the situation devolves into food fights and temper tantrums.

Been thinking a lot about why primetime TV is in such a superhero-loving moment. No, it wasn't brought on by the onset (onslaught) of Comic-Con this week. It was Television Critics Assn. press tour and all the yak yak yak during the past fortnight about the upcoming season's new shows.

I was struck by the superhero-mania by realizing that that even high-end, Emmy-winning drama types a la writer-producer Kevin Falls and director Alex Graves are working in the genre (sort of) with NBC's "Journeyman." Our hero in this show is a San Francisco newspaper reporter who can travel through time and change the course of people's lives. Falls and Graves during the TCA sesh on the show took pains to stress that they were going for "grounded sci-fi," and that the show would hinge not on time travel but on relationships.

"It's a a time-travel show made by people who don't believe in time travel," assured Graves, whose past  credits include "The West Wing," "Sports Night" and "Ally McBeal." Still, "Journeyman" has a mandate, one that he doesn't quite understand, to change people's lives for the better (and to keep viewers from changing the channel). Sounds superhero-ish to me.

It was NBC's own "Heroes," of course, sparked the most recent mania for supernatural storytelling with its breakout sizzle this past season. (BTW, the two pics posted here are from the soph season opener of "Heroes," tantalizingly titled "Four Months Later," set to air Sept. 24. Not many clues revealed in them but I figured they were a nice touch for anyone interested in this column's topic.)

In the coming season we have variations on the superhero theme in not only "Journeyman" but NBC's "The Bionic Woman," Fox's "The Sarah Connor Chronicles," and to a lesser degree (more about people with special powers than save-the-world-itis) in CW's "Reaper," ABC's "Pushing Daisies," from "Heroes" alum Bryan Fuller, and Fox's "New Amsterdam."

So why all the interest in characters with power to bend Newton's laws?

What Emmy didn't giveth on Thursday morning, the TCA Awards bestowed on Saturday night at the Beverly Hilton.

NBC's "Friday Night Lights," conspicuously snubbed by Emmy voters, got its due in nabbing best new program. Michael C. Hall of Showtime's "Dexter," another near no-show in the Emmy derby, was deemed best drama actor at the ceremony hosted by "Daily Show's" John Oliver.

Overall the Peacock swept the Television Critics Assn. kudofest with four trophies, including best comedy for "The Office," natch, and Alec Baldwin of "30 Rock" for top dog among comedy actors.TCA-ers didn't overlook NBC's other big frosh drama of last season, picking  "Heroes" the program of the year.

(Pictured: Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler of "Friday Night Lights")

Now that I've had some time to think about it, I'd say this year's crop of Emmy nominees fall into a few broad categories.

IT'S ABOUT TIME:

David Morse. Morse (pictured left) broke your heart every week during the 1982-1988 run of NBC's "St. Elsewhere." But was he nominated? Nooooo. It took a guest shot role on another hospital drama, Fox's "House," to win this underrated actor some Emmy appreciation.

Rainn Wilson. How could he have been overlooked last year? Just the sight of  him in his Dwight Schrute persona (pictured right) makes me laugh.

Mary-Louise Parker. Emmy voters felt so bad for snubbing her last year for "Weeds" that they gave her two noms, this year, one for "Weeds," one for the Oxygen movie "The Robber Bride."

This category can also encompass the new names and faces Emmy voters let into the tent this year, including "30 Rock"; "Ugly Betty" and America Ferrera; "Heroes" and Masi Oka; Neil Patrick Harris of "How I Met Your Mother."

POSTED BY JON WEISMAN

Chuck Lorre didn't even own a TV in the 1970s, so any similarities between his new CBS sitcom "The Big Bang Theory" and the swinging late '70s icon "Three's Company" are completely coincidental. Really, Lorre insists.

Lorre, co-executive producer Bill Prady and the cast of "Big Bang" seemed a little taken aback to find themselves in the unexpected position of being asked to compare and contrast their program to that of Jack, Janet and Chrissy during the "Big Bang" TCA sesh on Wednesday.

Tops on the list: Three decades after Suzanne Somers redefined the role of the dumb blonde on "Three's," is it possible that Kaley Cuoco's Penny (pretty small-town gal befriended by two neighbors who are Caltech physicists) is ... dumberer? (Pictured from left, "Big Bang" stars Jim Parsons, Cuoco, Johnny Galecki)

No way, said Lorre.

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

Despite the informal press conference setting, Neil Patrick Harris knew there was only one way to dress for the "How I  Met Your Mother" chat session: suited up!

So there was Harris (pictured left) on the dais positioned between show creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, all three discussing the awesomeness that is Barney, how Ted and Robin cope after their breakup and what's in store for newly married couple Marshall and Lily.

Critics, at least the ones here at the Beverly Hilton for CBS TCA seshes, weren't shy expressing their fondness for all the characters and were hoping for answers to the big question -- who, exactly, is the mother of "Mother"?

The first installment of season three, which airs Sept. 24, may just start to unravel the secret.

"Episode one will show that we haven't forgotten about the title of the show," said Thomas, not giving away more than that.

POSTED BY JOSEF ADALIAN

Jeff Zucker didn't feel the need to check out Ben Silverman's TCA debut Monday. But Leslie Moonves managed to lend CBS Entertainment prexy Nina Tassler (pictured left) some moral support today by catching her session with reporters -- most of whom had no idea Moonves was in the house.

Moonves apparently waited until the house lights dimmed before sneaking into the back of the BevHills Hilton ballroom where Tassler met the assembled scribes Wednesday morning. And just as quietly as he arrived, Moonves was gone a few minutes after Tassler wrapped up her controversy- and blunder-free appearance.

Despite his elevated role, the Eye supremo still feels obligated to schmooze the nation's TV press. He's expected to be at the net's all-star party Thursday night. We're hoping wife Julie Chen will be there, too, with some fresh "Big Brother 8" gossip.

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

The hot topic at the Nina Tassler panel at TCA on Wednesday was Mandy Patinkin's mysterious exiting of "Criminal Minds." Questions came in different forms but CBS Entertainment prexy Tassler stayed on point, saying only that Patinkin (pictured left) "came to me and asked to be released for personal issues."

Is it that Patinkin wanted out to work on another project? Was it health-related? Does he get just tired of the series grind and decides enough's enough?

Tassler wouldn't budge. She said several times that she hoped that Patinkin would come out in the near future to tell his version of events, but it doesn't seem likely. What's in it for him by explaining why he wanted out?

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

When CBS entertainment topper Nina Tassler went for a checkup a few months ago and the doc handed her a bag of peanuts instead of test results, she knew it was time to give "Jericho" its second-season pickup.

The Skeet Ulrich series started out well in the ratings last fall but soon began to fade. Then when it went on a three-month hiatus from November to February, pretty much any momentum the show might've had left was quickly evaporated.

"Maybe it wasn't good for the show and maybe it had an impact," Tassler said of the hiatus. You think, Nina?

Once CBS decided not to renew, the emails from outraged viewers came flooding into the exec's offices on Beverly Boulevard. I wonder if the Eye IT guys were able to install a "Jericho" spam filter to allow Tassler and Leslie Moonves to view non-"Jericho" messages in a more timely manner?

Though she wasn't convinced enough the series was viable enough to be put on the fall schedule, Tassler decided "Jericho" was worthy of a midseason slot. CBS has ordered seven new episodes, as Variety reported last month.

"The emails had reached a certain pitch and I thought that maybe this show needs a second chance," said Tassler (pictured left). "I went on the message boards and read the emails. It seemed like a segment of the population felt they weren't being counted."

Certainly "Jericho" fans aren't the first group to sound howls of protest when their favorite shows are canceled. If viewers voices were always heard by network schedulers, "Freaks and Geeks," "Veronica Mars" and "Deadwood" would still be on the air.

Whether the "Jericho" renewal begins a new trend on how much viewer reaction will play into the decision-making process for renewals remains to be seen, but its nice to realize that voices are being heard.

In the first episode back, Tassler said Stanley (Brad Beyer) would be getting engaged.

(Pictured above: Shaun Daily, a Nevada disc jockey who led one of the many fan-fueled "Save 'Jericho'" campaigns.)

-- Stuart Levine

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

CBS will launch the majority of its new fall schedule the week of Sept. 24.

Except for "Kid Nation" (pictured), which bows Sept. 19, and "Survivor: China," which unfurls the following night, the new lineup will kick off on Sunday, Sept. 23 with the 40th edition of newsmagazine "60 Minutes." James Woods starrer "Shark," which moves to Sundays from Thursdays, starts its second season that night at 10 p.m.

The network is waiting a while to premiere its new musical drama "Viva Laughlin." The series will launch on 10 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 18 before moving to its regular 8 p.m. Sunday time slot three days later.

-- Stuart Levine

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

Does the fact that viewer totals are excruciatingly low mean NBC's stellar Thursday night comedy lineup has little chance to be placed in the same class as in the days of "Cheers," "Friends" and "Seinfeld," all of which were ratings behemoths?

Ratings, mind you, have never come close to being equated with quality. Geez, "Veronica's Closet" and "The Single Guy" probably have higher numbers than "The Office" or "30 Rock" will ever do ... combined.

But after a TCA panel with the creator and star of each of the four comedies that air on Thursday -- "My Name Is Earl," "Scrubs," "30 Rock" and "The Office" -- it's quite obvious these guys (and lady) are funny. Really funny. What exactly does somebody have to do these days to get people to tune in?

"It's our job to make the shows good and Ben's job to make them watch," said Lorne Michaels, exec producer of "30 Rock" and "Saturday Night Live" godfather, about the job new NBC topper Ben Silverman has ahead of him.

When a reporter asked "30 Rock" star/creator/exec producer Tina Fey (pictured) whether she was confident last fall that hers was the NBC show-within-a-show would survive to see a second season, unlike Aaron Sorkin's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," Fey didn't hesitate in her response.

I was 100 percent sure," she said. "I have a nasty streak in me."

(Pictured above, from right: "Office" exec producer Greg Daniels, Lorne Michaels, Tina Fey and "My Name is Earl" exec producer Greg Garcia.)

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

Jay Leno remembers the "Tonight Show" transition well.

As Johnny Carson was stepping down as the king of latenight in 1992, both Leno and David Letterman were in line for the job. Letterman was at the time a 12:30 a.m. cult fave and Leno was a steady stand-up comedian who would often act as a fill-in host for Carson.

After much behind-the-scenes wrangling, Leno got the job and the ratings have been steady, so NBC can feel like it made the right choice. Letterman, of course, moved on to CBS where the network was finally able to create a latenight beachfront.

But now Leno will be on the other end of a "Tonight Show" transition, though this should be much smoother. Maybe not so much for Jay, though.

Speaking of Conan, NBC has finally taken the sensible step of making his show readily accessible for people to goof off with at work. Buried in the Peacock's raft of TCA announcements today was the news that as of Aug. 27 segs of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" will be available for streaming on the NBC.com Web site, starting at 5 a.m. PT the morning after they air. And surely "Late Night" will also be a prime offering on the yet-to-be-named joint venture NBC Universal is whipping up with News Corp. Now if CBS would only do the same thing with David Letterman and Craig Ferguson, there'd be no need to stay up late anymore...

The build-up to Monday's exec sesh with newly minted NBC toppers Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff (pictured left) was more dramatic than the actual 50-minutes of Q-ing and A-ing. The Hilton's International ballroom was packed, there was an audible buzz in the room and in the lobby outside. A number of top industry agents and execs were on hand, just because....It was rock-star anticipation time. (For a good time read Brian Lowry's review of "The Ben Silverman/Marc Graboff Show.") And get the lowdown on all the news out of the sesh from Variety's TCA avatars Joe Adalian and Michael Schneider.

By any measure, Ben aced his first TCA test, with a lot of help from Marc on those nagging "why'd you sack Kevin Reilly?" questions.

Graboff took those blows for the team, provoking laughter when he asserted in a very lawyerly fashion that "Kevin was not fired," which in point of fact is true. He just got demoted when his boss decided to recruit a new top-top guy.....But that's so late May. (Besides, it's not like Reilly's on the unemployment line. He'll get his TCA turn on Sunday as Fox's new head programmer.)

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

Following the frantic exec session with Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff, NBC's next panel focused on the network's Sunday Night Football package. And, despite Silverman's success on "The Office" and "Ugly Betty," this was a group with just a few more accomplishments between them.

Sitting in the front row of the stage were NBC Sports topper Dick Ebersol, John Madden (pictured right), Al Michaels, Bob Costas, Cris Collinsworth and Keith Olbermann. Behind them were producer Fred Gaudelli, reporter Andrea Kramer, future Hall of Famers Jerome Bettis and Tiki Barber, and production exec Michael Weisman.

Michaels, forever known for his 1980 Winter Olympics call "Do you believe in miracles" on the U.S. upset of the USSR in hockey, is an announcing institution. He's appeared in more live primetime network broadcasts than any person in history.

Madden coached the Oakland Raiders to a Super Bowl win but that almost seems an afterthought at this point. His gravelly signature voice has become ingrained into the minds of football fans that the week's big game only matters if he's doing the color. That's not true, of course, with Fox and CBS also doing a steller job covering the league, but Madden's presence always raises the game up a notch.

Costas has won 19 Emmys and feels old school ... in a good way. There's no doubt about his first sports love, which is baseball, but his football acumen remains strong.

The lightning rod of the NBC football shows this year will be Olbermann, who has become a champion for liberals over the past few years. On his increasingly popular MSNBC "Countdown" show, Olbermann pokes and prods the Bush Administration. Whether he does the same thing to Peyton Manning and Terrell Owens remains to seen.

"If I say something negative about Reggie Bush, then I have to say something negative about Clinton Portis," Olbermann joked.

He'll get that chance early on. The network's first game is Thursday, Sept. 6 when Bush and his New Orleans Saints travel to Indianapolis to face the world champion Colts.

But, certainly, his appearance will bring in viewers who might not be as much fans of the game as fans of him.

"With Keith, there comes an interesting heat," said Ebersol. Referring back to Olbermann's days on "SportsCenter," "With Dan (Patrick), he changed the way generation of fans looks at highlights."

-- Stuart Levine

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

Like a greased football, "Friday Night Lights" keeps moving around.

After NBC announced at the May upfronts that that the small-rated but well-reviewed drama was shifting its timeslot to Friday at 10, network topper Ben Silverman announced at TCA on Monday that "FNL" is now moving up an hour to 9 p.m.

Net's new Friday night lineup now shakes up this way: "Deal or No Deal" at 8, "Friday Night Lights" at 9 and "Las Vegas" at 10.

Filmed in Austin, Texas, "Friday Night Lights" -- TCA-nominated for program of the year and a Peabody Award winner -- has a rabid fan base but was never able to generate any type of ratings momentum. The show was very much on the bubble as far as returning for a second season.

One reason the show came back is that it's relatively cheap to produce compared to other one-hour dramas.

"It's produced effiicently," Silverman said. "We're always looking at finding responsible ways (to get these type of shows on the air). It's less expensive than 'Heroes.'"

Added co-topper Marc Graboff: "You want to stay with the shows you're most passionate about. We don't want 'Friday Night Lights' and '30 Rock' to become quality shows that never caught on, like 'Arrested Development.'"

NBC is hoping the late August release of the first season DVD will create more audience awareness that will carry over into season two.

Graboff went on say the series has received a full-season (22 episode) order, meaning if ratings aren't stellar coming out of the gate this fall, don't expect immediate talk about cancellation. And the Friday night slot means the stakes for drawing huge numbers aren't as high as other nights of the week.

Silverman also said that the network will be marketing the show differently this season that last, when the promos were mostly based on the on-field activities. This year, Silverman said, much of the ad dollars would be put toward the family dynamics and interaction of the students at Dillon High.

"We want to see the family demo," he said.

-- Stuart Levine

POSTED BY MICHAEL SCHNEIDER

The most-anticipated session in all of this summer's TV Critics Association press tour happens tomorrow. Monday, 9 a.m., the Beverly Hilton: It's Ben Silverman, along with partner Marc Graboff.

To quote NBC circa 1984: "Be there!"

To paraphrase NBC circa 1996: "It's must-see TCA!"

To whet our palate, Graboff made a brief appearance at the tour Friday, to discuss the state of Guild negotiations and labor questions (along side Warner Bros.' Bruce Rosenblum and AMPTP's Nick Counter).

When asked about the Peacock's strike contingency plans, Graboff scored a few chuckles with this quote:

"I'm not going to get into the details of what our schedule will look like just for competitive reasons. We are committed to providing quality entertainment programming. You are not going to see a test pattern, although maybe on NBC a test pattern in some cases would be OK."

NBC has traditionally (and I've always found this unusual) been the most self-deprecating of the broadcast networks. Even when it was top-rated, the Peacock would open its Upfront presentations with some sort of comedy routine or video that mocked the web -- be it Triumph the Insult Comic Dog or a video starring the entertainment president of the moment. Now that it's in fourth place, those jokes may hit a little too close to the bone -- but expect at least a few moments of gallows humor at Monday's executive session.

-- Michael Schneider

Mr. T says, "Be there, fool!"

OK, it's official. NBC's "Singing Bee" won the first round in the battle of the singing-competish reality series. "Don't Forget the Lyrics," Fox's spin on the "insert-lyrics-here" reality-competish genre bowed Wednesday in the 9:30 p.m. slot to 8.6 million viewers and 3.4 rating/10 share in the adults 18-49 demo, according to prelim Nielsens. That compared to 13.3 million and 5.1/14 on Tuesday for NBC's "Bee," in the same time period. Hosted by the ever-charming Wayne Brady (pictured at left), "Lyrics" didn't move the needle compared to the final 30 minutes of its 90-minute lead-in, "So You Think You Can Dance" (8.4 mil viewers, 3.4/10 from 9-9:30 p.m.). But then again, people didn't flee from it either, so that's something. And wannabe warblers plus the "So You Think You Can Dance"-ers were strong enough to give the Fox the nightly win (7.7 mil, 3.1/10) by a comfortable margin in both measures.

What a difference a year makes. This time last year, Katie Couric was charming the crowds at TCA, preparing for her history-making entry into the "Evening News" scene. CBS brass surely would've never predicted they'd be in such damage control mode, but Katie's candid interview with New York magazine continues to reverberate around media circles. So much so that the AP today moves a "nothing's happening, really" story quoting CBS News and Sports prexy Sean McManus trying to counter the rumors to the contrary and asserting that the Eye expects to still have Katie in the anchor chair by the time the news division is plotting its coverage of the 2010 mid-term elections.

Here we go again. The summer Television Critics Assn. tour is upon is. Ken Burns is the big draw at the Beverly Hilton today, talking up his 14-hour mini "The War," which looks at World War II from the homefront perspective of four American hamlets: Waterbury, Conn.; Mobile, Ala.; Sacramento, Calif.; and the tiny farming community of Luverne, Minn. "The War," produced and directed by Burns and Lynn Novick, has been six years in the making. It's also been the project that put Burns in the unfamiliar position of fielding some pretty harsh criticism for his take on history, from Hispanic and Native American advocacy groups who claimed his mini overlooked their contributions to the war effort. (According to the AP, Burns addressed this issue during his TCA sesh, saying he's added nearly a half-hour of material featuring Hispanic and Native American stories to the doc.) I just got my screener copy on Monday and am eager to set aside some time to watch it. If nothing else, Burns is meticulous about his research and has surely turned up some amazing images to tell this tale, like the one at left from somewhere in the South Pacific in 1944. PBS is bolding going to "War" during the thick of fall premiere week, rolling out the series in seven parts across two weeks beginning Sept. 23.

After PBS wraps up today, the wired-world takes over on Thursday for four days of cable-iscious fun. The presentation sked to the best of my knowledge is:

THURSDAY: Lifetime; FX, National Geographic Channel; Hallmark Channel; HBO, which outta be very intriguing given that it's the first major public event for the post-Albrecht regime.

FRIDAY: MTV Networks; BBC America; Discovery Networks; E! and G4

SATURDAY: Disney-ABC Cable; ESPN; GSN; Sundance Channel; Showtime

SUNDAY: Turner nets; BET; Rainbow Networks; History Channel; NBC Universal Cable

As of MONDAY, the broadcasters take over starting with two days of NBC, which also outta be interesting with the new Ben Silverman-Marc Graboff regime taking the stage for the first time.

WEDNESDAY-THURSDAY is all about CBS, which as usual is coming off another season of stability, making it hard for the scribe tribe to find much to grill entertainment prexy Nina Tassler about, other her love for musical theater and how it led to the pickup of "Viva Laughlin."

FRIDAY belongs to the CW. Co-toppers Dawn Ostroff and John Maatta probably have a bet going as to how quickly the "so why didn't you grow by leaps and bounds in your first year?" question is lobbed.

SATURDAY is a day of rest and awards, as the TCA's annual honors will be handed out to worthy programs ("Friday Night Lights," anyone?) and individuals, no doubt. (Click here for noms.)

SUNDAY-MONDAY ought to be good too as Fox, not to be outdone with NBC, brings out its new regime of ex-NBC-er Kevin Reilly and newly promoted Peter Liguori. Those two probably have a bet going as to who gets the first "how long can 'American Idol' keep it up?" question.

And finally, after a day of rest on Tuesday (July 24), the network that comes first alphabetically heads up the final two days of the tour, WEDNESDAY-THURSDAY (July 25-26), a cruel slot that no network with a show as good as "Lost" and a pilot as charming as "Pushing Daisies" should have to endure. But if anyone's got the spine to fend off back whatever a group of cranky critics have to throw at him, it's ABC Entertainment prexy Stephen McPherson.

So let 'er rip! Look for a steady stream of TCA dispatches here from yours truly plus my talented TV colleagues at Variety, including two, Mssrs. Zeitchik and Learmonth, who have winged in from Gotham just for the occasion.

And please, oh gods of auto-congestion, let the self-park garage at the Hilton not be too clogged...There's nothing like inching your way down those steep ramps when all you really wanna do is get back to the real world.

Can't pass up an opportunity to post a great pic of Betty White. She's the subject of one of PBS' "Pioneers of Television" docus set to air in the winter and spring '08 on the pubcaster. I did a lengthy sit-down with Betty in 2000 when she was marking her 50th year in television, and I can confirm that she is as lovely, gracious, funny and sharp as you'd hope Betty White would be. She's only piled up about 25 credits since then, from voice-over work on "King of the Hill" to semi-regular stints on "That '70s Show" and "Boston Legal" and now the CBS soap "The Bold and the Beautiful." Once her career got going in the early-early 1950s, when she was on the air live for five hours on weekday mornings, spinning records, riffing on the day's news and generally shooting the breeze on KLAC-TV (better known today as KCOP-TV Los Angeles), Betty has never stopped. She's an inspiration; we should all be in such good shape if we're fortunate enough to see our 85th birthdays (as Betty did on Jan. 22). To me she's not just a pioneer of television, she's the reigning first lady of television.

Good for NBC. "The Singing Bee" got off to a strong start on Tuesday, drawing more than 13.1 million people (most of them probably jonesing for an "American Idol" fix) and an impressive 5.0 rating/14 share in the key adults 18-49 demo, per prelim Nielsens and Variety's ratings guru Rick Kissell. The look of the fill-in-the-lyrics competish show struck me a variation on the "Deal or No Deal" melody -- goofy-upbeat host (Joey Fatone), girls in shimmery micro-miniskirts, etc....but hey, more people showed up for "Bee" than they did for Fox's telecast of the All-Star game (which pulled in about 12 million viewers, per Fox). "Bee" ranks as primetime's top telecast in adults 18-49 in six weeks, and NBC's best reality show debut, summer or otherwise, since "Average Joe" in November 2003, according to NBC.

The stakes are high. Nerves are on edge. Sniping is on the rise. And that’s just among the judges in this week’s edition of “On the Lot.”

Our regular arbiters of short-film taste, Carrie Fisher and Garry Marshall, go at it a bit, mostly playfully, in their discourse over this week’s five flicks.
The contestant field is quickly narrowed to 10 helmers after “Lot” host Adrianna Costa delivers the grim verdict to Shira-Lee Shalit (pictured) at the top of this week’s show. We see a montage of Shira-Lee at work in her trademark straw hats, and then she’s on her way, positive attitude in tow.

“It’s sad to leave, but it’s also: ‘What’s next?’ This is not the end,” Shira-Lee says confidently as she walks off, suitcase rolling behind her.

For all the advance hot air, it seemed like "Live Earth" drew modest crowds, linear or online. NBC Universal says that 19 million viewers tuned in to at least some part of its "Live Earth: The Concerts for a Climate in Crisis" coverage across eight outlets: NBC, Telemundo, Mun2, Bravo, Sundance Channel, Universal HD, CNBC and MSNBC.

Per NBC U, that figure includes viewers who watched at least six minutes or more of the Saturday-Sunday telecasts that served up a cavalcade of contempo music makers, including Madonna, the Police, Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Roger Waters, Kanye West, Kelly Clarkson and John Mayer (pictured left).

Despite the star power, the Peacock's primetime coverage on its mothership broadcast network drew a 2.8 million viewers with three hours of taped highlights. It's a woeful sign of the times for the state of live (or live on tape) music on the smallscreen; the Live Earth concert block came in dead last on the weakest night of the week (Saturday). It was beaten by repeats of "Cold Case" and "America's Funniest Home Videos." So to get to 19 million, a whole lotta people must've checked out at least six minutes on Bravo's 18-hour telecast that began 8 a.m. ET on Saturday and Sundance's 22-hour Earth-cast that kicked off before the sun rose at 4 a.m. ET Saturday.

Meanwhile, MSN is claiming  10 million video streams (and counting) for its coverage. MSN declared it a record for an online concert; execs there were breathless about "history" being made, etc. etc. But somehow, it just felt a little tepid after all the pre-show hype about 24 hours and seven continents and on and on. Then again, I've been a little more conscientious about what goes into the trash can versus the recycling bin during the past few  weeks so maybe the multi-media-marketing-stunt-is-the-message after all...

Craig Erwich was a loyal soldier to Fox Broadcasting Co. for a dozen years, through the programming regimes of John Matoian, Peter Roth, Doug Herzog, Gail Berman and finally, Peter Liguori. On Monday, amid the news of the arrival of Kevin Reilly as entertainment president and Liguori's promotion to Fox Entertainment chairman, Erwich (pictured left) decided it was time to move on (though he may yet stay within the News Corp. family, as Variety reports).
In the last four years of his tenure at the network, friends and colleagues say Erwich handled the always-tricky job of serving as No. 2 to the head of programming with great skill and good humor.
Ask anyone who's served in the executive vp programming role (or its equivalent) at a major network. You're in charge of development, but....credit has a way of flowing upward in success, while blame and tsk-tsking trickles down when things go wrong. But those who know him well say Erwich played an important role in bringing to fruition most of Fox's scripted successes during the past few years, particularly "24," "House" and "Prison Break."

"He's an incredibly good executive. He's smart, responsive and always very clear about his point of view," says Imagine TV prexy David Nevins, who worked closely with Erwich at Fox when Nevins was in the exec vp role and Erwich was head of drama development. It was Nevins and Erwich who first took the pitch from Joel Surnow and Bob Cochran on their unconventional idea for a drama thriller series that would unfold in real time, one hour at a time, during the course of a season. He rode the "24" thrill ride all the way to its Emmy win for drama series last year.
Before joining Fox in 1995 as director of current programming, Erwich worked at Stephen J. Cannell Prods. and as an assistant at CAA.

The rumors about Kevin Reilly (pictured left) heading to Fox started before he'd cleaned out his office at NBC, and apparently the talks have picked up steam in the past few days, as Variety reports. We could be in for a reunion of the team that made FX cool in the early part of this decade. Peter Liguori (pictured right) and Reilly always did seem like a good team, with complementary skills and simpatico personalities. Here's hoping there's a win-win scenario in this for two classy execs...

Good news for fans of long-form journalism. PBS' "Frontline" has bagged a $5 million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. "Frontline" exec producer David Fanning says the dough will help the program expand its online presence and distribution of content on the Web. "Frontline" already has a heck of a lot of material available for free viewing on its site via PBS.org, so it should be interesting to see what more they do with their material. I'm surely not the first to say this but it is true that "Frontline" is the only mainstream news program out there doing in-depth reporting on the most troubling issues of our times. Most recently the program impressed with a chilling seg, "Endgame" (pictured at left), on our seemingly intractable military quagmire in Iraq. Fanning sez the new money will "allow us to take the next big steps to integrate our documentary production online (and) enrich the user experience with new original content."

Why were we not surprised that Kenny would be the one to be most excited about the horror assignment on this week’s episode of “On the Lot?”

“I’m ready to get bloody, bro,” Kenny said to no one in particular as host Adrianna Costa and judge Garry Marshall set this week’s six contenders off to work. This was moments after Costa and Marshall played the part of a two-headed Grim Reaper again by descending on the group of 12 remaining contestants to dispense with the loser of last week’s comedy shorts competition. As most viewers probably surmised, it was bye-bye David May, whose attempt at a sexy rom-com last week fell flatter than “Gigli” with the judges, and apparently, voters. On the other end of the scale, we found out that Will Bigham’s short “Nerve Endings” got the most votes.

As the six up for short-duty this week set off to work, Marshall gave them a few pointers: “Get characters, get pace and have a little gore,” he said, emphasizing little. Then we cut to a confessional clip of Shira-Lee Shalit admitting she never watches horror movies, which only made her stock go up, in our eyes.

Guest judge this week is “Hostel” meister Eli Roth (pictured above), who’s introduced by Adrianna as “the future of horror.”

Sad news last week about the passing of Joel Siegel, ABC News' longtime film critic, at the age of 63 after a struggle with colon cancer. "Good Morning America" plans to devote the second hour of Monday's telecast to a tribute to Siegel, who delivered weekly film reviews for the morning show for 26 years, on top of logging a more than 30-year stint on  WABC-TV New York. "GMA" alumni Charles Gibson, David Hartman, Joan Lunden and Spencer Christian will make guest appearances on the hour, and it's expected that various actors and filmmakers will contribute taped pieces commenting on Siegel's work, per ABC.

Beyond his work as a critic, Siegel led an eclectic life, working as everything from a flavor-inventor for Baskin Robbins to a joke writer for Robert F. Kennedy. He was an eyewitness to history in 1968 when he accompanied the senator from New York to his fateful visit to L.A.'s Ambassador Hotel. He wrote the Tony-nominated Broadway play "The First," about Jackie Robinson, and when he was diagnosed with cancer six years ago, shortly after learning that he was to become a father for the first time, he penned a book of stories, "Lessons for Dylan: From Father to Son," he wanted to pass on to his son and wife, artist Ena Swansea. Monday's tribute ought to be an interesting and emotional hour of live television.

Good piece today by the Associated Press' Lynn Elber on this week's relaunch of Ovation TV. It bodes well for the channel that former Bravo and Trio exec Kris Slava is running the ship. He was intimately involved in Trio's "Brilliant but Canceled" series and thus knows and thing or two about too-cool TV. Ovation is sticking with its arts and culture milieu, but instead of a string of short clips of opera and classical music performances, there'll be much more of a cohesive programming flow to the primetime sked. Weeknights will be skedded according to broad themes, with Mondays devoted to performance, particularly dance and theater; Tuesdays is all about artistes, with profiles, docs and features about painters, sculptors and the like; etc. etc., as laid out in Elber's story. This week's relaunch is anchored by a series dubbed "American Revolutionaries," a look at mavericks and trailblazers ranging from Frank Lloyd Wright to Kurt Cobain.

The news about the recasting of Merrin Dungey (pictured left) in one of the lead  roles in the "Grey's Anatomy" spinoff "Private Practice" raises the question of how producers plan to handle the launch of the series this fall since its pilot was actually a two-hour seg of "Grey's Anatomy."

It might've made sense to repeat that episode, or even a cut down version of that seg, in advance of the first episode of "Private Practice" proper this fall, but not now that Audra McDonald (pictured right) is stepping in to the role of Dr. Naomi Bennett, the college pal of Kate Walsh's Addison Montgomery. I'm told there'll be no reshooting of anything done this past spring. "Practice" will start with a fresh seg that finds Addison relocated in L.A. and into her new life at the Santa Monica wellness center populated by a host of quirky doctors. Necessary backstory can be easily filled in with dialogue in the opening moments.

So why the Dungey-McDonald swap? I'm told that it was partly a chemistry thing between Dungey and Taye Diggs, who plays Naomi's estranged husband Sam, and that some were having trouble buying them ever having been a couple. McDonald, a four-time Tony winner and a Juilliard-trained singer, is known for exuding a natural strength common to great stage actresses. But the decision to make the switch couldn't have been easy for Shonda Rhimes, creator-exec producer of "Grey's Anatomy" and its spinoff. Merrin Dungey is the sister of Channing Dungey, an ABC Studios executive who oversees "Anatomy" for the studio and is known to be close to Rhimes.

This just in...

Erstwhile "CBS Evening News" anchor Bob Schieffer (we were just talking about him a few items ago, see 'Rosie wasn't right for 'Price' anyway") is making an appearance on tonight's "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson," delivering a faux news report about Craig's ongoing campaign to become a citizen of the United States.

Earlier this month Craig began soliciting cities and towns across this fair land of ours for honorary citizenship status. According to CBS, so far the mayors of some 7,200 hamlets have responded, along with the governors of North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Nevada, Montana and Texas, with letters giving Craig his red-white-and-blue due. As they should.

We are a nation of immigrants, and by my yardstick Craig's one of the better ones to have arrived on these  shores in the past 15 years or so. Think about it. The pride of Glasgow's many talents -- actor, writer (and not just short scripts but he pens the trifecta of TV, films and fiction tomes) , producer, host, father, motorcycle rider, keen-eyed pop culture observer, etc. have helped keep people in employed (stagehands, typesetters, craft services, mechanics, etc., etc. ) and he's contributed to the Clean Air Act by maintaining high standards for his double-entendres despite his past-the-FCC's-indecency-policing-jurisdiction time slot of 12:35 a.m.

So by the decree of On the Air, the People's Republic of Variety.com grants Craig lifelong honorary citizenship. He can come hang out in our Miracle Mile digs anytime. After all, Craig's home-away-from-home-away-from-Scotland, CBS Television City, is just around the corner.

Also, as Variety's Joe Adalian reported today, "Late Late Show" is committed to seeing the U.S.A. in a Chevro-..er..Ford this summer by sending two staffers on a road trip full of Ford logos. Maybe afterward one of them will get hopped up on ...coffee... and write the great American buddy-road novel of the early 21st century on one long continuous roll of paper in a sweltering one-room apartment in New York...

In this week's installment of "On the Lot," we say goodbye to Jess as the competition slims down to the not-terribly-dirty (it is broadcast TV, after all) dozen. And Zach's stock climbs even higher with the judges after he unveils his latest crowd-pleaser, "Die Hardly Working." (Zach is pictured at left at work on the short.)

Once again, the elimination part of the show is dispensed with quickly at the top, following a bit of recap clippage, as judge Garry Marshall and host Adrianna Costa surprise the contestants by showing up unexpectedly as the group huddles on an outdoor patio in one of their "gee I'm so nervous" powwows. Actually, this time around they're all complimenting one another's work, particularly Jess and Jason, who took a pounding from the judges for their films last week.

"Brooklyn girls never give up," Marshall advises Jessica Brillhart as she does the requisite round of hugs before exiting the scene.

I feel compelled to post a note of hugely heartfelt thanks to all of those who have read and responded to this week's "Supernatural" column. First off, it validates my feeling that this show is an overlooked gem. But more selfishly, from a business perspective, the hundreds and hundreds of good folks who have checked out my post have spiked the traffic for this blog exponentially. Before this week, the above image of guest star Emmanuelle Vaugier from the "Supernatural" seg "Heart" from this past season was a pretty good representation of how frustrated I was in trying to get any real traction for this blog since its soft launch in mid-May. But the response to my sit-down with Eric "hell of a nice guy" Kripke has restored my faith in humanity, television and my ability to do meaningful work in this new medium. It's one of the perks of the job to be able to talk to interesting, thoughtful, creative people like Eric. So thanks muchly to everyone, especially those who left kind words behind. And for all of you rabid Jensen and Jared fans, here's another cute pic of the guys, just for good measure.

and congrats to Warner Bros. Television for fielding the smallscreen winners in both the 60-minute ("ER") and 30-minute ("The New Adventures of Old Christine") categories. Duty called in the office today or I would have attended the luncheon instead of staying back at the Wilshire Boulevard ranch and writing up the winners from the press release (not nearly the same as being there). Soon as I can find some pics from the event and get a download or two from folks who were there, I'll put something up. If anyone who did attend wants to weigh in, why, that's what the 'Comments' section of this space was made for...

(Wednesday update: OK, so today was busier than I thought and didn't have a chance to really update this. But thanks to Berliner Studios/BEImages for the Larry Gelbart pic at left.)

According to the AP, Rosie O'Donnell posted an item on her blog Sunday saying that she has formally bowed out of the running to replace Bob Barker as host of "The Price is Right." If she has, I can't find it, so here's a link to the AP story.

I humbly submit, with due respect to Rosie, that she's not right for the gig. Can you say "mellifluous" (I can't but love the word anyway)-- well, that's what Bob Barker was. A total broadcasting pro whose voice never grated. Like I said, with all due respect to Rosie, Bob was someone you could stand to have in your house every weekday before noon. He was cool, never overheated, no matter how hard the contestants were jumping up and down on him....Come to think of it, given these job requirements, I wonder what Bob Schieiffer thinks of Plinko?

Muscle cars. Classic rock. Scary monsters and evil demons. Chain saws. Handsome guys and hot girls. Jeffrey Dean Morgan dying. "Supernatural's" got it all, including a hard-core fan base who have built elaborate website shrines to the series. So why isn't it a bigger draw for the CW, especially among the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "X-Files" demo?

This is a question that keeps "Supernatural" creator-exec producer Eric Kripke up at night listening to things that go bump. Not that he isn't happy and grateful to just to have his spawn live for another season, its third, in the 2007-08 season. But he'd like to get the word out that there is hope in the Thursday 9 p.m. slot for people who like more other-worldly entertainment than the docs of "Grey's Anatomy" or the forensics of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." Hell, actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan, the cardiac-challenged martyr of "Grey's Anatomy," even died in the first episode of "Supernatural" last season, after cutting a deal with the devil to allow his older son to live.

"Because I believe in the humanity of man, I believe there's a wider audience out there for this show," Kripke joked over breakfast (brioche and coffee) the other day, down the street from Warner Bros. where "Supernatural" is produced. "I don't think we have to live on 'Grey's' and 'CSI's' scraps. But we do have to find a way to get the word out that this show is out there. The people who used to watch 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' are not watching anything else on the CW."

Can only imagine the TLC Jimmy Kimmel is receiving from g.f. Sarah Silverman after undergoing an emergency appendectomy on Wednesday, per the AP. Kimmel's mouthpiece Lewis Kay says the whole thing was over and done with in 18 hours and that he's expected back on the show on Tuesday. Repeats 'til then. I was hoping for a quip about exploding organs or something delivered via Kay but sadly, no, or at least not yet.

(At left is the goofiest picture I could find on the ABC press site from a "Jimmy Kimmel Live" seg last week. Have no idea what these hunks of Marine-dom were doing on the show -- I'm guessing it was a band perf? All the caption tells me is that it's Sgt. Major Neil O'Connell and Staff Sgt. Timothy Dutton flanking Jimmy when he still had his appendix.)

Marty, your drive-on has been revoked.

Marty Martin (pictured left) is this week's casualty on "On the Lot." After last week's surge of attitude from Martin, we could have seen that coming as easily as the hackneyed plots of one of his shorts. A more surprising development this week is the crowd turning on judge Carrie Fisher - who had the memorable "you're a big fan of yourself" exchange with Mr. Martin last week.

As few times in this week's episode, Fisher's criticisms of the contestants drew catcalls and boos from the crowd behind her. Fisher took it in stride, as you might expect from a thick-skinned showbiz vet.

Book Hell is more than just a state of mind. It's an actual place, I'm thinking it's somewhere south of Downey, Calif. (home of the Blasters and the Carpenters), where decent hard-working writers/wives/mothers go to get singed by the flames of burning manuscript pages that demand to proofed/revised/de-hyped/rewritten for the $%^&*^-th time. You don't actually drive to Book Hell, you descend there, sometime between the time you finish the line edit and the copy edited manuscript arrives. You show up with a blindfold on thinking, "C'mon, how long can this pass through the manuscript take?" and "What was the show that replaced 'Savannah' on Sunday when the WB launched its Monday night slate in 1996?" So that's where I spent my weekend, and probably most of next weekend too. I'm lucky my husband and daughter haven't thrown me out for good.

I'm in entirely too snarky of a mood right now to go anywhere near penning a jokey item about the announcement from NBC today that it has picked up the rights to a Colombian telenovela "Without Breasts There is No Paradise." Keeping tongue-in-cheekiness in check, the deal is interesting for what it says about the global-mindedness of the biz these days. NBC Universal is snapping up rights to a property that was a smash hit in Colombia, and will develop it in English for the Peacock and in Spanish (with a separate cast and production team) for Telemundo. And NBC's newly minted programming chief Ben Silverman deserves all the credit in the world for being smart enough to look beyond Hollywood's ethnocentric snobbery to ferret out creative ideas and concepts that originate beyond U.S. borders, as he did with another Colombian novela hit, which became ABC's fair-haired "Ugly Betty." Still, I had to chuckle at some of the Ben-speak in the press release, as reported by Variety's Joe Adalian.

"On the Lot" sees some sparks fly in its fourth week as the ever-cocky Marty Martin and judge Carrie Fisher scrap a bit as five more of the remaining 15 contestants screen their three-minute wonders for judges Fisher, Garry Marshall and this week's guest, David "The Devil Wears Prada" Frankel.
By the end of this week's live seg, the group has slimmed down to 14 as Trever James, whose short "Teri" screened last week, is sent packing. Don't ask me why, but "America," as "Lot" host Adrianna Costa is fond of saying, spared Hilary Graham, who delivered the un-funny "How I Met the Finkelsteins" short, but threw over James who delivered the best of last week's batch, IMHO. Worse, Trever and Hilary (pictured above) had to spend all of this week's episode sitting off to the side in director's chairs while Costa plucked this week's contenders from the larger group. Memo to Hilary: Don't wear miniskirts/minidresses on show taping days.

Here's hoping Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff didn't get their new business cards and letter head yet.
NBC Universal Television Studio is no more, per the news released this a.m. by the Peacock. The studio arm is being renamed Universal Media Studios, doing away with the mouthful of a moniker (and its unfortunate acronym, NUTS) that emerged after the formal merger of NBC and U in May 2004. (UMS may sound like a bank or something but at least it's harder to make fun of.) So now Silverman and Graboff are co-chairman, NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios. The NBC-free name may also be more conducive to the studio producing for non-NBC U outlets, though with NBC, USA, Sci Fi, Bravo and a growing number of digital platforms to feed it would seem that studio prexy Katherine Pope and her team have plenty to do in-house. Or as Ben says with characteristic modesty:  "NBC Universal is the premier content company on the planet and this name change reflects our TV studio's natural evolution as digital distribution expands and more platforms need premier ideas and programming."

Here's a perfect match for primetime. John Larroquette is going to lend his talents to ABC's "Boston Legal" in the upcoming season. He'll play a senior partner from the New York office who transfers to Crane Poole & Schmidt's nuthouse Boston office. Larroquette is no stranger to David E. Kelley-land, having done guest shots on multiple episodes of "The Practice" during its ABC run. Larroquette's always been a favorite of mine, and I'm not too sheepish to admit that I've even enjoyed his romps as maverick lawyer/gumshoe in the series of "McBride" telepics that Hallmark Channel has been running since 2005.