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TCA Roundup: Headless Peacock in Hotel Bar

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Bates in Harry's Law / NBC

Another round of headlines from the Television Critics’ Association winter press tour, which is winding down at the lovely Langham Hotel in Pasadena, and it was NBC’s turn to face the critics and reporters…

* …except no executives were on hand to do so. NBC has a new team coming in to run the network once the deal with Comcast is completed, but since it isn’t yet done, no one could officially take the stage and speak for the network. It’s anarchy, I tell you! For all any of us know, Donald Trump is running the whole thing! So NBC instead focused on actor-writer panels, and TV journos were denied one last opportunity to kick Jeff Zucker for old times’ sake.

* David E. Kelley talked about his new Kathy Bates drama, Harry’s Law, and mentioned that even his own children pleaded with him not to make yet another legal show. I may just have them write my review for me.

* In other David E. Kelley news, he’s still working on that Wonder Woman remake. (Please God, let her not turn out to be a lawyer.) In other Kathy Bates news, she’ll be returning to The Office for Steve Carell’s sendoff.

* Meanwhile, NBC Universal property is taking advantage of corporate synergy… by helping promote a huge hit on Fox. Reality show The Glee Project will follow the search to cast a new character for the already-cast season 3 of Glee. I’m assuming that the first pitch, The The Event Project, didn’t fly.

* And in other NBC-sister-networks-giving-additional-publicity-to-the-competition news, Kara DioGuardi showed up to promote her new Bravo songwriting competition, and all anyone wanted to talk about was American Idol. Never let it be said that NBC Universal is not a generous company.

* Finally, and most important, there will be a Dungeons and Dragons episode of Community. Two words: Nerd. Gasm.