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NBC might be inspiring poetry in some of its underlings, but at the top of the executive food chain, there still seems to be a touch of post-traumatic stress disorder following their cellar-dwelling season. At NBC's upfront presentation earlier today, president Kevin Reilly explained how too many shakedowns for his Nielsen milk money by the other network bullies informed his decision to go with just two sitcoms on their traditionally comedy-heavy Thursday night. Reports the LAT:

"Comedy has always been fragile and the audience right now is not particularly patient with comedies," Reilly said. "It's harder to lure them to comedies; it's harder to get them to stick with comedies right now...I think our competitors would look at four comedies [on Thursday] and say, 'Let's go get 'em.'" [...]

Admitting fear in this fashion could be a catastrophic mistake in strategy, especially with CBS's Les Moonves not revealing his schedule for another couple of days. While Reilly is undoubtedly confident in the early buzz behind new Thursday night 9 p.m. occupant Studio 60, the notoriously cutthroat Moonves now has plenty of time to counterprogram with all of the weapons in his arsenal. Come Wednesday, no one should be surprised to hear The Eye announce its plans for a special season of its top-rated franchise, CSI: Hookers Who Have Turned Up Dead After Partying With Aaron Sorkin.