Obligatory post-Kevin Reilly blog posting

"Nobody's Watching" is coming back as webisodes.  Anybody shocked by that?  Madonna's doing a non-live concert special for NBC, and Kevin Reilly's head of movie development is developing ... one movie next season for NBC. Ricky and Stephen are writing a script for "The Office."  Jason Katims is working on "footballsomething," aka "Friday Night Lights." "Last Comic Standing" is going to be on NBC in the summer "for years to come." Stop me if I'm giving you actual news...

The president of NBC Entertainment has made a point of being forthright with the press ... as forthright as one can be when you have as many trade secrets in your head as Kevin Reilly does.  Unfortunately, he is also an employee of GE, which means they make him read off a teleprompter positioned at the back of the room.  (Halfway through his remarks, I just turned around and read that.  He improvises well.)

It's a way of saying he's starchier than he needs to be. That said, I thought he answered my question about Jay Leno about as well as one could answer a question where extremely sensitive contract negotiations are going on.  (In case you weren't noticing, or caring, Leno's not talking to the press.) I asked about possible seller's remorse in signing that deal that will have him leaving "Tonight" in 2009 and whether NBC is talking to him.  Short answer: Yes, and we're doing it because after the news got out all of Jay's friends began asking if he was retiring, would there be a next act, where would it be, etc.

Oh, and nobody else can talk to Jay for a couple more years. That's in reaction to Bill Carter's report in his book that ABC was interested in giving Jay the "Nightline" time slot. Maybe they're interested, but that's all they get to be for a while.