It was a long, long, lonnnng first official TCA day yesterday, with CBS, Showtime, and the CW trotting out their newest and finest in front of the critics, followed by the epic Survivor anniversary party Bob mentioned the other day. I'll spill out some highlights later on. But I wanted to quickly start with CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler's very confident executive session.

Why was she so confident? Shows that are often winning their time periods helps. But she also seems to be in a "told ya so" mood about NBC and its Leno / Conan mess. In her opening remarks, for instance, she mentioned how good the freshman slate of shows was doing on every network... except NBC. During the Q&A, she said that the other networks "fared very well during this experimental phase for NBC."

We just got done with the NBC executive session, where primetime entertainment head Angela Bromstad and alternative programming (read: reality) chief Paul Telegdy took the reporters questions.

Of course, many of the questions had to do with The Jay Leno Show and Ben Silverman's departure. What the gathered reporters got out of the two executives was evasiveness, referrals to other executives, and a general sense that the two of them either don't know or don't want to provide answers about their own network.

When the question of Leno and CBS's Nina Tassler's assertion that NBC would declare victory no matter what numbers they got, Bromstad tried to pass us to the session for Leno's show later in the day. Telegdy did the same. But we wouldn't let them off the hook. An example exchange, for instance, went like this:

CBS programming chief Nina Tassler held court this morning in the CBS executive session. Her network is in an extremely strong position, so there wasn't much in the way of controversy to report, but here are some interesting tidbits from the session:

• Laurence Fishburne's character of Dr. Langston on CSI will assume a more take-charge position this year, he'll also be given a "wardrobe makeover" so he seems, as Tassler put it "more comfortable in his own clothes."
• Jorja Fox will be back for the first five episodes. And one of the main characters will get promoted. I won't spoil it for you, but you can probably figure out who it might be.
• A new Let's Make A Deal with Wayne Brady as host, will be taking the place of Guiding Light. Tassler wouldn't go so far as saying this is a trend towards the return of daytime network game shows, but she did say she wanted to get a new LMAD on the air for a while.
• No plans to bring back Flashpoint right now, though they can. More Canadian cross-production deals on the way, including The Bridge.
• On NBC's late-night / Leno strategies: "Whatever numbers they get, they'll declare victory anyway, so it doesn't matter."
• On the departure of Ben Silverman of NBC: "I'm really just a D-girl, so I wouldn't comment."

When I posted the news items that came out of Showtime's portion of the CBS tour, the one question I got was "When will Dexter be back?" Well, network president Robert Greenblatt mentioned that the third season would debut in September. No word beyond that. Didn't seem like news to me. But there you are, Dexter fans; that's all I've got on that.

The executive session was introduced by a semi-funny clip from one of the network's stars, Tracey Ullman. Really, it wasn't that good, so I won't talk much about it here. Greenblatt also showed clips of The United States of Tara and Nurse Jackie during his opening remarks. Other than that? Well, isn't that enough?

I've held off reporting on the CBS executive session at the TCA press tour yesterday because there's not much to say. That's what happens when you're the number one network and there aren't many open spots on the schedule.

Unlike ABC and NBC, whose network programming heads went solo, CBS trotted out not only Nina Tassler, president of CBS Entertainment, but Nancy Tellem, the president of the CBS Paramount Network Television Entertainment Group, and Kelly Kahl, CBS's EVP of programming operations.

The only thing that really concerned the trio was the presence of what NBC's Kevin Reilly called the "Death Star": American Idol. The concern was so great that the three of them used more science fiction terminology than you'd ever expect network executives to know.

Besides announcing the renewal of four shows, NBC Entertainment Kevin Reilly spent his executive session talking about "tent posts" and spewing sports analogies. But all of it said that he was pretty optimistic about the future of his network.

He definitely thinks being patient with shows is imperative, especially when you're working from behind as his network is. "Vision is a word that gets thrown around a lot but is in short supply," he spoke of shows like The Office, that started out slow and built audience. "When you got it, grab it." Among his new "vision" shows are 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, and Studio 60.

NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly started his network's portion of the TCA press tour by announcing full-season renewals for four shows: My Name Is Earl, Heroes, Law & Order: SVU, and The Office. This means all four shows will be back for new seasons in the fall. Reilly called those shows, and a number of others, "tent posts" that he thinks will bring the network back to a much stronger position than it has been in recent years.

In other news, Reilly announced the pickup of a new improv pilot called Thank God You're Here, where improv comics will don a costume unknown to them, enter a scene, and attempt to improvise through it. It will be hosted by David Alan Grier, and the improv comic's skills will be "judged" by Dave Foley. Where does the name of the show come from? Well, when the comic enters with his costume on, the other comics in the scene will say, "Thank God You're Here!" Clever, ain't it?

More on the executive session later today.