PeterRice

Before and after the FOX execs so dramatically brought Simon Cowell on stage to sign the contract bringing his British show The X Factor to the US, effectively ending his time on American idol, there were other heady matters to discuss. Just small stuff, like the possibility of Conan O'Brien bailing on NBC and joining FOX, and the mini-scandal surrounding the game show Our Little Genius.

On Conan, there really wasn't much to say. "We're in sort of the wowee mode right now," said entertainment president Kevin Reilly. After reiterating what he's said in the past on always being in search of a good five-night-per-week late night program, he went on to say that "I love Conan personally & professionally. Until he makes his decision (on whether to leave NBC), there's no conversation to be had."

But since he knows Conan's people, it's not like he hasn't been talking, at least informally. He classified them as being more in the "commiserating phase;" knowing Reilly's history with NBC (Jeff Zucker fired him three years ago), I could understand the commiseration.

Believe it or not, FOX execs Kevin Reilly and Peter Rice did field questions that didn't have the words "Idol" our "Paula" in them. But there weren't many. Here are the highlights:

• When Reilly was asked about the "Save Dollhouse" campaigns out there, he joked, "you mean the campaign that started before we starting making episodes?" He cited the solid cumulative numbers the show put up (which included DVR numbers) as to why it was brought back, and the fact that "the fans were there every week. We were there with Joss, and he delivered." While Whedon "wasn't having a lot of fun" in the first half of the season because of the struggles he and the network had to focus on what the vision of the show would be, in the "second half of year he found his voice on the show and had a lot of fun," according to Reilly.
• On Futurama and the option the show has to do a first run on the network level: The show will "do its run on Comedy Central first and we'll see what happens. If we see a renaissance of that show, sure. It's not out of the question." But right now, there are no talks to air it on Fox.

As you might expect, most of the questions for Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly and chairman Peter Rice this morning were Idol -centric. Here are the salient points:

According to Rice, Paula Abdul was the only member of Idol whose contract was up. They were talking to her about it for months, and they very much wanted her to return. In past few weeks, "negotiations came to conclusion, as Rice put it. "We made a fair offer with a substantial raise. Paula decided not to return. It was not our choice. We wanted her to return to the show."

They are most likely looking to keep the number of judges at four, but Rice feels they have between now and January's live shows to find a judge. "We're looking to bring different element and energy to the season." There will be guest judges during the audition process, including Victoria Beckham and Katy Perry. Rice and Reilly wouldn't announce who else, but they said that these would be mostly female singers, artists, and performers.

More from the exec session coming up.