• We really looked for projects that were different, that were a little bit daring. ... We've got geeks, we've got Cubanos, vampires, singers, swingers and unaccompanied minors," CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler said.

In other words, "Big Bang Theory," "Cane," "Moonlight," "Viva Laughlin," "Swingtown" and "Kid Nation." All canceled except "Big Bang" (and "Swingtown," which is struggling this summer).

• HBO executive Michael Lombardo said, "It's always been our intention" to do the follow-up "Deadwood" movies the pay-cable channel announced when it canceled the series.

Didn't happen. Probably never will.

• HBO did not intend to ever repeat the scheduling pattern of "The Sopranos."

"The truth of the matter is waiting a year and a half between shows, I think we've discovered is probably not ideal for the viewer," Lombardo said.

But then there was the strike. And it will be just about a year and a half between seasons of "Big Love."

• During a discussion of the graphic, simulated sex in the HBO series "Tell Me You Love Me," Showtime chief Matthew C. Blank said, "Simulated sometimes works better, I think."

"Even in your own life," interjected Showtime Entertainment president Robert Greenblatt, adding, "Did I say that out loud?"

That's much more tasteful than those movies Showtime airs late at night.

• "You know, 'WWE Smackdown!' is still No. 1 with men 18-34. So, given that we are the network trying to appeal to that demographic, it fits in," CW Entertainment president Dawn Ostroff said.

She canceled it. Not that I'm complaining or anything.

• Confronted about "Farmer Wants a Wife" and romantic reality shows in general — which so rarely seem to work out — Ostroff admitted, "Well, we're not requiring that there's a civil ceremony. ... I mean, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't work."

Usually not.

• In answer to what became of the woman who won on "The Search for the Next Pussycat Doll," Ostroff said, "Asia has decided to do a solo career."

After the laughter died down, the questioner asked (rhetorically), "Well, wasn't that sort of pointless?"

• "I think 'Women's Murder Club' can work for us ... across our schedule. So, we're excited about the possibilities there, whether it stays on Friday or moves to another night," ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson said.

Didn't work on Fridays. Didn't work on Tuesdays. Canceled.

• McPherson described "Pushing Daisies" as "a procedural — you know, who-done-it, solving these mysteries." But "it's never going to fall into a 'CSI' vein."

Understatement of the year.

• Networks hate to be last on the schedule, which is why they rotate from press tour to press tour.

ABC went last a year ago, and McPherson greeted us with, "I feel thrilled to be the last guy. You've got to either be cranky, drunk, delirious or not here."

I, for one, was cranky from the start.