After sitting through NBCs frustrating and un-illuminating final day of official press tour Monday"there are a few set visits scheduled on Tuesday before whoevers left heads for home (or in some cases Comic-Con over the weekend)"Im tempted to say that TCA saved the worst for last. More like saving the least for last.

Its unprecedented in my memory of press tour for so many networks to screen so little of their new fall programming, but NBC really took the booby prize in giving us an entire day of hype with nothing but their word to back up the fact that theyre incredibly happy with the way the new sitcom Kath & Kim is coming along"despite the fact the show (based on an edgy Australian format) dumped its original director and is reshooting much of the pilot, which we only saw a few ghastly-looking moments of right before one of many awkward panels. We also heard the new season of Heroes is going to be awesome, but I guess theyre saving any visual evidence of that for Comic-Con.

Jay Leno showed up in disguise to needle his bosses about next years inexplicably unnecessary and premature changing of the late-night guard, but that stunt only served two sad purposes. One, to remind the room that Jimmy Kimmel (who did much the same thing at ABCs executive session a week earlier) is funnier and more original these days, and two, to focus us on the reality that the only thing we have to talk to NBC about these days is their lost, faded glory.

The network is pinning all of its hopes, it would seem, on Amy Poehler, whos leaving Saturday Night Live to star (after a career pause to give birth) in a vague new sitcom from the producers of The Office, who were told are still under orders to develop a separate Office spin-off, though thats on hold until the Poehler show is ready this spring. (And heres where we speculate about spreading your producing talent too thin, which is only a concern when you consider the spotty quality of so many of those supersized Office episodes that NBC treasures.)

But what about the fall stuff? Over breakfast, NBC screened a clip-reel loop of the new adventure series Crusoe"looked kinda hokey, like middle-drawer Halmi, but who can really say"which premieres on Fridays in mid-October, but NBC declined to present a panel with cast and producers via satellite from Africa, where this international co-production (saves money that way) is underway. Satellite sessions are relatively common during press tour, and NBC did arrange a hook-up with Olympics anchors and execs from Beijing.

Instead of Crusoe, the day ended with the critics grilling (to little effect) the cast and crew of a puzzling mid-season drama called Kings, which isnt even scheduled yet. A modern-day David and Goliath parable that imagines a fictional kingdom that looks an awful lot like New York, set against a wartime backdrop that looks an awful lot like Iraq, Kings actually looks promising. But that didnt stop the session from getting uncomfortably contentious when a reporter declared the producers werent making any sense, prompting an outburst from the shows outspoken star Ian McShane ( Deadwood).

Piece of advice: Want us not to be confused? Show us something.

It was even worse if less testy at a session for the incomprehensible (on paper, anyway) new Monday night action-drama My Own Worst Enemy, starring Christian Slater in a Jekyll-Hyde meets Jason Bourne style role as a mild-mannered family man whos somehow also a cold-blooded secret agent, and what happens when his separate identities (which hes not aware of) collide. In the words of Alfre Woodard, who plays his handler: What we actually do is we manifest a divergent identity dormant in a sealed-off portion of the medial temporal lobe. To which exec producer Jason Smilovic (who gave us last years winner Bionic Woman) quipped: Now who doesnt understand that?

My Own Worst Enemy is one of many new NBC series this season that was picked up without benefit of a pilot and went straight (though obviously late) into production, which is why we havent seen anything. And which is why its unfair to judge, though how can we not when entertainment chief Ben Silverman gushes about Enemy less as a kickass drama than as a marketing platform for General Motors, which was brought into the development process for this show from the get-go. In fact, according to Silverman, the first things we actually shot were for General Motors with Christian Slater that are going to air at the Olympics. Yeah, why not: Promo first, show second. The shows mid-October premiere date is also timed to coincide with a new GM line being launched around the same time.

Anyone else getting Knight Rider vibes? (In a panel on the new Wednesday night series being spun from last seasons wretched car commercial of a movie, Knight Riders new show-runner admitted, Even Ford said it was way too much [product promotion] in the two-hour.)

While NBC proudly sells out, Ill end my press-tour musings for now by listing all of the new fall shows we have yet to see an actual episode of. Could make for a busy August as we prepare for a fall season that right now feels like one of the best-kept secrets of the year.

NBC: My Own Worst Enemy (just wrapped production); Knight Rider (we saw the movie; we can wait); Kath & Kim (reshoots); Americas Toughest Jobs (try watching NBC shows for a living); Crusoe (currently shooting in South Africa).

ABC: Life on Mars (reshoots, major recasting, relocating from LA to NY); Opportunity Knocks (revising some of the game rules, so I hear).

CBS: Eleventh Hour (new episode being shot to air in front of the original pilot, whose cloning theme was considered a bit grim).

CW: 90210 (just finished shooting), Privileged (Anne Archer joining the cast, forcing reshoots), Stylista (still being edited); the Sunday-night lineup leased out to Media Rights Capital of In Harms Way, Surviving Suburbia, Valentine, Inc. and Easy Money (all still in development, and not even presented in panel form, so a complete mystery to one and all for now).
TVGuide Links:

• Amy Poehler
• Jay Leno
• Office
• Jimmy Kimmel
• My Own Worst Enemy
• Kath & Kim
• Kings
• Crusoe
• Knight Rider