A day in the life of press tour '12: CBS

Lucy Liu and Jonny Lee Miller are Watson and Holmes in CBS' "Elementary."

Credit: CBS

Good morning, all. Now that the TCA Awards are all done with, it's time to get back to the more typical business of press tour. Today we welcome the last of the Big Four broadcast networks, with a full day of CBS panels. Here's a quick run-down to give you a sense of what a day on tour looks like. After this we have a combined CW/Showtime day tomorrow, a day of set visits on Tuesday, and then various cable channels on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. (HBO is paneling "The Newsroom" on Wednesday, which should be... interesting.)

9:35-10 a.m.: Nina Tassler's executive session has the shortest allotted time of any of the four network entertainment presidents, but given CBS' sustained run of success under the same management team using the same formula, we tend to have less to ask her about than we do, say, whoever's in the same chair over at NBC that year.

10:15-10:45 a.m.: It's "Elementary," my dear Watson, as Jonny Lee Miller, Lucy Liu and several producers of the modern-day Sherlock Holmes story field questions about the inevitable comparisons to Steven Moffat's "Sherlock," making Watson a woman, etc.

11-11:30 a.m.: "Partners," the new Monday sitcom created by the "Will & Grace" guys and starring Michael Urie, David Krumholtz, Sophia Bush and Brandon Routh, whom I'm sure will be asked for his feelings about "Man of Steel."

11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.: Lunch/writing time

1-1:30 p.m.: "Vegas," the new period crime drama starring Dennis Quaid as legendary '60s Vegas sheriff Ralph Lamb and Michael Chiklis as the local mob boss. Quaid will be asked about doing TV for the first time, Chiklis about playing another heavy, etc.

1:45-2:15 p.m.: "Made in Jersey," with Janet Montgomery from "Human Target" as a big-haired Jersey girl trying to succeed at a posh Manhattan law firm. Montgomery's English, so unless she pulls a Damian Lewis — who once appeared on a panel for "Life" using his fake American accent, because that's what he thought we'd want to hear — there should be some amusement in contrasting her native dialect with the subject matter.

2:15-3 p.m.: Another break.

3-3:30 p.m.: Jeff Probst comes out not to talk "Survivor" (though there will be questions on that, I suspect), but "The Jeff Probst Show," his upcoming daytime talk show. 

3:45-4:30 p.m.: The revamped "CBS This Morning" is the last panel of the day.

6 p.m.: A press tour party featuring stars from CBS, Showtime and the CW. I'm told they're expecting over 900 people, between actors (and their entourages/handlers), producers, executives and press.

Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching

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Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com