jeff gaspin

What a difference six months makes. In January, with the Leno/Conan mess blowing up all around them, NBC Universal entertainment execs Jeff Gaspin and Angela Bromstad sat before the critics and answered questions as unassuredly as people in their position could be. Gaspin, who had just been inserted in his job, tried to be honest about the fiasco and their mistakes, but really couldn't talk about how the network's future would look.

Now, though, with a development season under their belts, both executives took a more confident stance at the TCA press tour, talking about "rebuilding" the network. More on that in a bit.

First some news: '30 Rock' will air a live episode on Oct. 14. 'Parenthood' and 'Outlaw' will premiere early, after the final two episodes of 'America's Got Talent' on Sept. 14 and 15, respectively. Rob Lowe is now a permanent cast member of 'Parks and Recreation.' And there will be guest stars galore on various NBC shows, including Drew Carey on 'Community.' Finally, 'The Apprentice' comes back with a two-hour premiere on Sept. 16.

NBC has just realized something: you have to spend money if you want good TV shows.

OK, maybe "realized" isn't the best word to use. More like "remembered." NBC chairman Jeff Gaspin tells The New York Times that the network is changing its strategy and will pay to get some good shows on the network.

For starters, they've ordered almost 20 new pilots this season -- scripted dramas and comedies -- up from ten last season. Instead of strictly going by the numbers and looking for a big profit margin and trying to cut costs in every way possible, they're looking for good shows they can stick with.

News that New York Times reporter Bill Carter is working on a pseudo-sequel to his groundbreaking book The Late Shift' made a smile creep across my face. I haven't yet read the book, but the buzz it caused and the weird stories that came out of it just by word of mouth gave it an aura of mysterious wonder that made the television industry infinitely more fascinating than it already was.

It also spawned a pretty decent made-for-TV HBO movie. Now I don't know what kind of craziness "Round Two" has to offer, but the players involved are definitely going to have all sorts of wild secrets revealed from Carter's work and when it does, HBO is going to want the movie rights. So here's who should play who in this new tragic merry-go-round of television programming hilarity that shall be called 'The Late Shift 2'.

I'm going to give NBC Universal TV Chairman Jeff Gaspin the benefit of the doubt in this interview over at The Hollywood Reporter's Live Feed. If he's serious in some of the things he's saying, then it's pretty sad.

First Gaspin says that the decision to replace Conan O'Brien with Leno at 11:35 was based on "the facts," that The Tonight Show was down 49% and the affiliates were down 14% and that it "made sense to try to come up with some other formula for late night." And that was to put Leno back at 11:35 and (try to put) Conan at 12:05, which he didn't go for.

But you know what? Leno won't have Leno as his lead-in.

Ben Silverman is leaving NBC to start a new media company.

A lot of people are going to rejoice over this news because they think that NBC hasn't been the same since he took over the entertainment department at the network. While he did bring The Office and The Biggest Loser to NBC, a lot of viewers have been confused by other moves at the network. Another show that Silverman had a hand in, The Jay Leno Show, will debut in September. We'll have to see how that goes.