TV

Lisa Garza in the finals on the Next Food Network Star, and 5 Texans, including Arlington's Melissa Lawson, are looking to head into the finals on Nashville Star. And don't forget Daniel from Dallas is still in competition on Shear Genius.

Let us know who you think will win their respective shows.

Word comes from KERA-TV Channel 13 that Grapevine sibs Robert and Alexandra Switala will be featured Sunday at 12 noon on From the Top At Carnegie Hall. They'll perform "Passacaglia (After Handel)," arranged for violin and viola, by Johan Halvorsen.

Allie's 14 and Robbie is 15. Allie previously was featured on From the Top at age 12, in 2006, when the program was recorded on the road at the Eisemann Center in Richardson.

If you'd like a sneak preview of the Switala Duo performing, click here.

This concludes the live-from-L.A. portion of my TCA coverage. But tune in (late afternoonish) Friday when I will be disgorging my online journal of all the news that's fit to blog from my nine days at the Beverly Hilton.

It was Al Michaels, John Madden and the rest of the seemingly ever-expanding team of commentators/reporters/analysts that make up NBC's football-coverage team.

Perhaps the biggest news item coming out of the panel was the reunion of Keith Olbermann with his ESPN counterpart, Dan Patrick. When someone asked about the secret of their success during those mid-90s hey-days when they co-hosted ESPN's Sportscenter, Mr. Patrick explained "We just tried to entertain each other."

Mr. Olbermann elaborated, saying "the goal being to make the other laugh uncontrollably on national television."

When, in a joking reference to the "controversy" that has dogged Mr. Olbermann here at the TCA Press Tour since, during an earlier Fox News panel," anchor Chris Wallace opined that Keith Olbermann's dual function on MSNBC as both outspoken editorialist and co-anchor of campaign coverage, was a breach of journalistic ehtics and/or intergrity, Mr. Olbermann was asked if his outspoken criticism of the Bush administration should disqualify him from serving as co-host of Football Night in America, he (eventually) responded thusly:

"Barring the possibility of John McCain picking Brett Favre as his running mate, I don't think it will be a problem."

As the panel wound down, a final question was asked. "Are any of you," someone queried "going to be on the next season of Dancing with The Stars?" A follow-up to the suprisingly slinky and newly traded REdskins pass-rusher, Jason Taylor who made it to the finals this past season.

Chris Collingsworth was the first to wave off the suggestion.

"My wife's been bugging me ever since the first season that show was on to take dancing lessons. I finally just told her 'I will never either look like or dance like Jason Taylor.' "

Jerome Bettis patted running-back-cum-commentator Tiki Barber and said "Tiki's our guy." For his part, Mr. Barber just laughed and shook his head 'no.'

Then Mr. Madden entered the fray on a serious note.

"I heard it's going to be Warren Sapp," he said and then proceeded to start doing what he does -- analyzing and forecasting the outcome.

"He's good, he's got the moves," Mr. Madden said. "I predict he'll win."

The panel had opened with a discussion of last year's Super Bowl (Mr. Madden thought it was good for football and -- more importantly -- football commentators that the NY Giants had one since it set up a more interesting storyline this season) and a look ahead to this coming Super Bowl. It culminated in Mr. Madden predicting that the New York Giants, against most oddsmakers, would win again.

Now he wrapped things up.

"I'm going with the Giants and Warren Sapp."

Another Deadwood alum, another Deadwood perspective. Last week, it was Timothy Olyphant dishing Deadwood and on Monday it was Ian McShane, aka Al Swearingen. Appearing at a panel for the new NBC drama, Kings, in which Mr. McShane plays -- can you guess? -- a king, someone asked for his thoughts/feelings on the sort of sad, undignified way that Deadwood ended. Mr. McShane likewise lamented its passing, and more to the point, the way it passed.

"They (HBO reps) said the reason was he (creator David Milch) was working on another show -- well, he was always working on another show. He had signed a three-show deal. You're familiar with David Milch and how he works. I suspect what happened was HBO saw that this was the most expensive show on television and went to David and said 'how about we just do maybe eight episodes this season. And he said 'how about we do [expletive] none?'

I always knew it was over, that was the end. Everyone involved did. That 'two movies' idea that was floated about was just a smoke screen. Pathetic. It left me with a bad taste for a while."

Think the Summer Olympics in Beijing are going to be a big deal? NBC, which paid $1 billion for the broadcast rights, certainly does. How big? Try "the single most ambitious media event in history" in the words of Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports and Olympics. Or, in the words of NBC's Olympic primetime host, Bob Costas, "uber-spectacular."

Start with the amount of coverage -- 3600 hours, more than the combined total of every other Olympics televised in the U.S., starting with the 20 hours CBS devoted to the first Olympic broadcast in 1960.

In a cutting-edge exercise of multimedia programming, all those hours are going to be spread across television, computers and mobile devices, and all are going to be broadcast in high-definition.

"That's probably the biggest technical innovation," Mr. Ebersol said, speaking by satellite from Beijing. At the last Olympics (in Salt Lake City) only five sports and the opening and closing ceremonies were in high-def. They were boutique presentations. Now every camera we're using, including the lipstick cams that will show you the arrows landing in the archery competition, will be high-def.

The other change that may mean even more to viewers -- considering that according to NBC astatistics, 95 percent of Americans still use standard televisions -- is that the majority of coverage will be live. In stark contrast to previous NBC-broadcast games, viewers will see what happens as it happens, as when, over the first eight nights, swimming events will be shown during primetime. Gone is the "plausibly live" approach of previous Olympic broadcasts when NBC would hold back events and package them for a primetime audience, showing them hours after they had happened and, in this evermore wired world, results were widely known.

One reason for the emphasis on live coverage is viewser frustration. "We've learned our lesson," Mr. Ebersol said.

Another reason is that China, though halfway around the world, is, conveniently, 12 hours ahead of New York -- mid-morning there is primetime back home. With all those high-def cameras and all that "cross-platform content" -- streaming video on nbcolympics.com, updates broadcast to cell phones, and , of course, all the coverage televised on NBC and its cable counterparts -- it's easy to understand why the Olympic mantra at NBC is "whenever, wherever, any hour, every hour."

If imitation truly is the the sincerest form of flattery, the NBC paid ABC a huge compliment during its executive panel by pulling the same stunt as its rival network did a few days ago. Just as the first question for ABC's president Stephen McPherson came from Jimmy Kimmel posing as journalist, the first questions to NBC's co-chairmen, Mark Graboff and Ben Silverman were asked by a bald, bearded guy in the back, who turned out to be Jay Leno in disguise.

It made for funny impromptu theater for the NBC execs, but it also allowed them to handle The Question -- what's going on with Jay and when will Conan be taking over The Tonight Show -- in a way they could control. Thus, a ballroom full of actual journalists found out that Jay Leno's last night as Tonight Show host will be Friday, May 29 of next year and Conan O'Brien's first will the next Monday, June 1. The stunt also allowed Jay to seem in on the joke and to dampen suspicion that this transition marks a fractious break between the talk-show host and his network, a suspicion that was seemingly buttressed by Mr. Leno himself in an interview with USA Today in which he was quoted as angrily saying he was done with NBC once his reign on the Tonight Show ended.

Just a misunderstanding due to a quote being taken out of context, according to Mr. Silverman, who said that the network continues talking with Mr. Leno about what role he might play after the switch to Conan.

"He came to us and said he felt bad about how he sounded in that interview. We're still talking to Jay about staying within NBC."

Jay Leno, the bald-headed journalist, didn't stick around to provide any answers. He just asked his questions -- "You've brought back Knight Rider, any plans to bring back Manimal? "Have you offered Jay a fifth hour of the Today Show?" -- and then he was gone. He didn't sound mad, but then, this is show business.

The Chicago Tribune has a story about the breakup between Disney and the movie-reviewing Ebert & Roeper hosts, the Trib's Roger Ebert and the Sun-Times' Richard Roeper:

"I wish Disney the best of luck with their new show, whatever form it may take," Roeper said in his statement. "In the meantime, it is my intention to proceed elsewhere with my ninth year as the co-host of a movie review show that honors the standards established by Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert more than 30 years ago. I will be free to share the details on that program in the near future."

We all remember the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunciton at the 2004 Super Bowl -- and the storm o' controversy that it sparked. The show also resulted some live broadcasts going with delays.

Read about an appeals court tossing out the $500,000 fine against CBS and tell us what you think.

Lisa Garza, co-owner of the Dallas restaurant Suze, advanced to the finals of The Next Food Network Star on Sunday night as the cooking reality show provided a twist for viewers. The surprise is that she'll be joined by fellow competitors Adam Gertler and Aaron McCargo because the judges deemed it to difficult to give someone the boot during the penultimate episode, forcing the show's first ever three-way final. Look for a tale-of-the-tape comparison of the finalists Thursday in GuideLive.

A panel with the cast (minus Darrell Hammond and the soon-to-be-former member, Amy Poehler) of SNL and creator/executive producer, Lorne Michaels, opened with a burst of news items:

This season will be extended from the normal 20 episodes to 22.

There will be seven live episodes leading up to the November presidential election, with four consecutive live shows kicking off the season.

Most notably, during the build-up to the election, the SNL crew will stage a weekly half-hour version of Weekend Update, Thursday Night Live, which will premiere on Oct. 9.

But there was time for all of that. Another more pressing question had to be answered: How will the show deal with a pregnant Hillary Clinton? No, that's not another news flash, the First Lady and former presidential candidate isn't pregnant. But the SNL actress who impersonates her on the show is, Amy Poehler, and will be abundantly so as the election nears. "Are you going to have her wear really big dresses or have her sitting behind a desk?"

"There'll be less need for Hillary in the fall," head writer Seth Meyers ventured. But when reminded that Bill Clinton being out of the White House hadn't meant that Darrell Hammond's version of him didn't still pop into SNL skits, Mr. Meyers nodded. "That's true, well then, you're idea about the desk is a good one. We'll do that."

With the country accelerating into the final months of the presidential campaign, it's not surprising that talk during the SNL panel focused on the show's plans for and history of political satire. How, for example, will the show's writers deal with Obama, who has thus far proven to be a tough personality to parody.

"He's still defining himself," Mr. Michaels said, "and he's still primarily cast as heroic. But that will change. It's all about finding the take on him that everyone can agree on. He's still being dealt with very cautiously and reverently, but as he becomes more familiar and the campaign grinds on, the proper satirtical take will become clear."

Since both candidates have appeared on the show, although Senator Obama just appeared in one sketch while Sen. McCain was a guest host this past season, Mr. Michaels was asked "who's funnier?"

Of course, they both were funny, in their own ways. He complimented Sen,. McCain for being such a good sport and willing to go with the show's flow. When he was subsequently asked about his personal politics -- he acknowledged that he has contributed to Sen. McCain's campaign, he waved off the possibility of any such bias affecting the show's content or tone.

"I contribute to any former host running for office," he joked, before adding, "Who ever's in power, we're suspicious of."

Sounding like a coach about to enter the championship season, he also said that Amy Poehler "will be with us through the election, or at least, as long as she can be."

When Friday Night Lights' Connie Britton (Coach Taylor's guidance-counselor wife) was asked about the effects of all the doomsday-anxiety surrounding the show, she said:

"Maybe it's got something to do with Austin, but once we're down there and shooting, we don't pay that much attention to what people are saying about the show's future or demise. We're just in our little Texas heaven."

Friday Night Lights has been a unique and extraordinary show since it debuted on NBC in Oct, 2006. It's a show based on a movie (of the same title) that completely reinvented itself and became not just different but better than the film that inspired it. It's become variably known as 1) the football show that isn't about football, 2) the best show on television that almost nobody is watching, or 3) just simply the best show on television.

That unique/extraordinary aura got (at least) another level added to it on Sunday when at a panel featuring castmembers and exec producer/writer Jason Katims it was confirmed that the show will become the test case for "a completely new model" of distribution -- this plan was originally announced, but sketchily explained in an April meeting with advertisers during NBC's upfront. FNL's upcoming third season will debut in Feb. 2009 on NBC, but first it air in its entirety -- starting Oct. 1 -- on satellite TV provider Direct TV's original programming initiative, the 101 Network.

."I'm a huge fan of the show," said Eric Shanks, executive vice president of entertainment for DirecTV, "and like everybody at NBC, I wanted to fiure out a way to keep the show going. It's been a long journey, but the show is so special and it has such intense, dedicated fans."

The plain facts are this: NBC has ordered 13 episodes (nine less than last year's 22-show season). Production will begin some time in August, in Austin. The show will start clean; rather than picking up where the strike interrupted it, FNL's new season will begin at the start of a new school year, the next football season. That means that two of the show's central characters, former star quarterback/paraplegic, Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) and hotshot running back 'Smash' Williams (Gaius Charles) have graduated and won't be regulars on the show anymore.

"As much as we love those guys and those characters," said Mr. Katims, "we felt the show has always been about being true to life, authentic as possible, so we love them but to be true to their lives, it was time for them to move on.

"They're both going forward to the next step in their lives, but we are absolutely leaving the door open to them coming back."

Other than that, not much in the way of facts, plain or otherwise, were offered, a reflection perhaps of just how "completely new" this arrangement is and how little about how it's going to work is known.

For instance, how will this experiment be judged a success. Is it just a matter of attracting a significant segment of DirecTV's existing 17 million subscribers, giving them something to get excited about? Or will this venture be judged by how many new subscribers it draws?

Mr. Shanks either didn't know or was unwilling to say.

"There are a large number of things that we will be looking at. It's about keeping existing customers satisfied and new customers coming in the door, You can't just look at one thing to say whether this is a success. There are a lot of ways we're going to be looking at it."

Okay. Let's try something else. Among the unique FNL features DirecTV will be offering to its subscribers are a "postgame" show, Friday Night Lights Live in which viewers will be able to call in and ask questions of that week's participating cast members (Mr.Kasims guessed that "two or three" will take part each week). Even more enticing to hardcore fans, however, is the promise of bonus content and/or extended episodes available only on DirecTV. What does this mean. Will the show be reverse-engineered, sort of the opposite process a cable show like Sex and the City goes through to run on broadcast television, only instead of taking the R-rated material out, FNL's producers will be putting it in?

In a word, maybe, or more precisely in three words, they don't know.

"Well, we're talking about what we might do. We haven't started production yet so I could probably answer that question a lot better in six or eight weeks," Mr. Kapinos said. "We potentially could do a version that's different for DirecTV. One thing that's really attractive is the possibility of a longer running time, so we might do something like that.

"I don't really know yet, but each version would have something to recommend it."

It's not surprising that, on the cusp of doing something that's never been done before, that clear, certain answers are few. Switching to a new season with fewer episodes and the creative possibilities of longer, more fluid running times and adult-themed content -- Friday Night Lights seems to be going through a strange, unprecendented metamorphosis. It entered its strike-imposed cocoon an underperforming broadcast show and it may emerge a precedent-setting new kind of cable show.

The new 90210 may be a whole new show -- "We're really having a strong adult storyline" -- but there are a few ways in which it will be just like the old show by including some of the original castmembers. Jennie Garth will be back as the all-grown-up Kelly Taylor, and in one of those what-a-teeny-tiny-world, improbably convenient coincidences that always happen on television and never in real life, she is now back at West Beverly High as the school's guidance counselor.

The show's producers also confirmed that Tori Spelling will be back as Donna Martin, now the owner of a boutique that will no doubt prove to be a crucial site in the lives of its new crop of hip high-schoolers (you know how teens love a good boutique). The producers also announced that Shannon Doherty will appear in an undetermined number of episodes as a drama teacher "guest directing" a musical at West Beverly High.

As for Jason Priestley, Luke Perry et al, "We're open to it," said Gabe Sachs, executive producer, "as long as we can do it organically within the show. But we haven't talked to any of them yet."

For anyone who lived through the original 90s craze that was Beverly Hills 90210, the specter of a new "cooler, sexier, more provocative" spin-off series may induce a groan and a shudder. But there are reasons to hope the new series may not only not be hateful but actually be fun.

1. It's being written and produced by Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah, who worked on Freaks & Geeks and created Life As We Know It, two shows that blew up and turned inside-out all the conventions and tedium of teen "dra-medy."

"We grew up in Apatow country (a reference to filmmaker and Freaks & Geeks creator Judd Apatow)," Mr. Judah said. "We're grounded in reality, telling truthful, emotional stories that are also really funny."

2. It's got an interesting cast that includes Jessica Walters, from Arrested Development, and Tristan Wilds, from The Wire.

Asked to compare her matronly character in 90210 to her hilarious stint at the matriarch of Arrested Development's dysfunctional Bluth family, Ms. Walters said "They're very different. First of all, Lucille (Bluth) drank vodka and Tabitha drinks scotch."

Mr. Wilds' tenure on The Wire provided the panel's funniest moment when Mr. Judah talked about his excitement at working with a Wire alum. "I love that show so much. The first time I was with Tristan, I was like Chris Farley, a reference to recurring SNL sketch in which Mr. Farley would play a starstruck celebrity interviewer.." 'You remember that time you were sitting on the stoop? That was awesome' "

The Cw, once staked its brand on being a source of "urban" entertainment shows -- a show biz euphimism for shows centered on African-American stories and characters. But at this point, the only such shows remaining on the network's schedule are Everybody Hates Chris and The Game.

Meanwhile, the CW's new target audience are women 18-34 and the shows the network is using to attract them are series centered on the young, beautiful and (perhaps especially) rich. Perhaps the signature show of this new brand identity has been Gossip Girls, a show about the days and nights, loves and addictions of a band of merry (and not so much) rich kids in New York City. With its new season, the network looks to expand that niche with entries like the updated spin-off, 90210 ("If you wanna live in the zip, you gotta live by the code"), and Privileged, a show about the fabulously wealthy, and did I mention young and beautiful, residents of Palm Springs.

Clips of both these shows shown to the press gathered in the Beverly Hilton ballroom on Saturday offered a dizzying, designer-decked montage of high fashion, fabulous mansions, exotic cars, exclusive clubs and, of course, the lucky inhabitants of all this gilded luxury. All this glamorizing imagery and voyeuristic fascination with the wealthy, their playthings and playgrounds, comes just as news reports and front pages are filled with daily accounts of America's slumping economy, described, coincidentally, in Saturday's Los Angeles Times, as "the worst economy since the Great Depression."

As gas prices climb, stocks slump and the housing market implodes, is anyone at the CW concerned that viewers' appetite for or perceptions of all the wealth-worshipping entertainment may suddenly shift? No. Being a network executive means the glass if never half-empty, it's always half-full.

"I think when times are tough, escapist entertainment is even more important. Viewers are looking to escape into television and see worlds they wouldn't see every day," Ms. Ostroff says. "You look back at shows like Dallas and Dynasty, they were fantasy shows that were very popular at a time (the 80s) when we had similar economic problems."

For some of the broadcast networks trumpeting their new (or not so much) seasons at the TCA press tour, spring has become the new fall as they announce post-strike plans to shift the premiere of new shows from the traditional launching-pad of the Fall season of September/October to Spring and January/February (and maybe March). But on Saturday, the CW unveiled another calendar re-calibration -- summer as the new fall.

Instead of springing forward, the CBS-owned network is falling back and premiering its new Fall lineup in the last couple of weeks of summer. Returning shows One Tree Hill and the cult-pop phenom, Gossip Girls, will debut on Monday, Sept. 1 while the Tyra Banks-hosted reality hit, America's Top Model, starts Wednesday Sept 3. In between, the spin-off of that inescapable 90s smash, Beverly Hills 90210 -- this time dubbed simply 90210 -- will kick off on Tuesday, Sept 2 with a two-hour premiere.

A week later, another new soapy drama focusing on the young and the rich, Privileged, will debut on Tuesday, Sept. 9, and the following week Smallville and Supernatural return on Thursday, Sept. 18. There are a couple of exceptions to the earlier roll-out -- Everybody Hates Chris and The Game return on Friday, Oct. 3; the new fashion-reality show, Stylista debuts on Wednesday, Oct. 28 -- but CW's falling back into summer will last beyond this post-strike season and even extend further next year.

"This won't be a one-time maneuver," said Dawn Ostroff, the CW's president of entertainment. "We plan on starting earlier in the summer from now on, maybe early August or even late July.

"It allows us to premiere outside the clutter of the Fall season."

The move can also be seen as the latest reaction from broadcast networks to the ongoing and broadeneing success of cable networks with original programming, many of which use summer -- a season historically neglected by the broadcast networks, a dumping grounds for re-runs and cheap-tp-produced reality shows -- as an uncontested fly zone for fledgling series.

"Sure, we looked at cable," Ms.Ostroff said. "They launch a lot of show in the summer and it works for them. And we looked at what broadcast puts on in the summer.I think it's a real open opportunity for us."

For now, anyway. With basic cable networks joining in on premium cable networks' show-launching (Emmy-garnering) fun,and broadcast networks trying to find ways of holding on to their core viewers and reach out to new ones, summer may soon look like an overbooked hotel during a holiday rush -- no vacancies.

At a panel of CBS News personalities -- Bob Schieffer, Jeff Greenfield, Katie Couric -- and Sean McManus, CBS president of news and sports, the question of Ms. Couric's fate and future as anchor of the network's evening news was asked, repeatedly. And again and again, both Ms. Couric and Mr. McManus reported that there was no news to report.

"All the speculation is befuddling to me," Ms. Couric said. "At least it's died down considerably."

Showtime has signed Edie Falco to star in a new 30-minute comedy series, Nurse Jackie. On the surface, it looks to be a female version of House -- she's smart, dark and drug-addicted. But this being Showtime and premium cable, count on more "edgy" content (that is, R-rated) and executives involved promised that the show would be more about her personal life than a week-to-week medical procedural.

CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler said she is "very proud" of Swingtown, the show centered on wife-swapping couples in the 70s, and loves the show. As to whether the show will be back, "We wish the rating were better but right now we're behind it."

Jason Alexander and Luke Perry will make guest appearances on the upcoming season of Criminal Minds

In a case where quantity trumps quality, CBS has, at least in one way, already won the Fall season irace before it has even started by managing to muster one. At a press tour where the standard post-strike approach taken by most of its competitors has been to introduce a couple of new shows and talk about what an exciting opportunity it is to re-introduce last Fall's shows again, CBS is debuting four shows -- Worst Week, The Ex List, Eleventh Hour and The Mentalist.

What fate awaits them is another matter, but there's something to be said just for getting them on the air this fall rather than delaying their debuts to what has now become the default, post-strike pilot season, which is January or the even more vaguely delayed release of "sometime this spring."

How did CBS do it?

"The strike was a tough time for everybody," said Nina Tassler, president of CBS Entertainment. "But we felt it was really important to get viewers back, win back their hearts and trust, and we approached that challenge in a very strategic, methodical way....

"That meant we had to have a pilot season and develop new content that viewers could look forward to. "To build viewers' anticipation of your new fall season, you have to first have a new fall season."

Of course, with that mission accomplished, the question becomes are any of the shows any good? It's a fool's gambit to judge the merits of a series based on its pilot, so let's go ahead and do that.

Two are comedies: Worst Week, a sitcom about a nice guy who always has bad things happening to him. It stars Kyle Bornheimer, the guy from that hilarious T-Mobile commercial where he's trying to leave a voicemail message to a girl he went out with the night before and keeps screwing it up ("gosh, you ate like a horse last night..."), so that's good. The pilot is a fairly frantic procession of physical-comedy gags so that could grow tiresome over time, but the core situation -- he's trying (and failing) to win the approval of his pregnant girlfriend's parents (think Meet the Parents as a sitcom) offers plenty of potential laughs.

The Ex List is all about a single woman (Elizabeth Reaser, Ava/Rebecca on Grey's Anatomy) who is told by a psychic that she has one year to get married or she will spend her life alone. The additional hook is that the man she should marry is someone with whom she's already been romantically involved. The pilot was as strained and limited as that set-up, but if the show can be half as funny and crazy-energetic as its creator, Diane Ruggiero, was in the show's panel on Friday, then it will be worth watching.

Two are dramas: Eleventh Hour is a science "fact" not a science fiction show from Cyrus Voris and Ethan Reiff, the creators of the Showtime series Sleeper Cell. Another plus, it stars Rufus Sewell as the biophysicist-investigator who goes to work for the FBI, solving crimes having to do with cutting-edge stuff like cloning and cryogenics. The pilot is good, but there's a lot of this kind of techy/edgy drama on television, so it all depends on the consistency of the show's execution.

The Mentalist is a drama starring Simon Baker (the callow hunk from Devil Wears Prada) who stars as former fraud-psychic who is now using the skills he perfected as a fake psychic ("his razor sharp skills of observation") to help the California Bureau of Investigation to solve the seemingly unsolvable crimes. It's got a kind of clever charm about it, but I wouldn't bet on it.

A recurring message among executives, producers and actors at the TCA Press Tour has been that the message that shut Hollywood down for five months and brought last year's new Fall season to a screeching halt was, really, when you think about it, a good thing.