NBC, All Quiet on the Network Upfront

Likewise, ABC's presentation tomorrow will once again be staged at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, but minus last year's bells and whistles, bingo games and big prime-time-stars production number.

Ironically, Fox, the last network to weigh in at this year's Upfront, is expected on Thursday to throw the most traditional, and entertaining, presentation this year. Of course, Fox is the first-place network and therefore has something to celebrate.

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Meanwhile, details are trickling in as to what few new series will be unveiled this week by the non-NBC networks. Most of the excitement seems to be about what ABC programming chief Steve McPherson will have to say in re Silverman when McPherson announces his network's pickup of NBC's "Scrubs." Plus, there's gobs of buzz congealing around CW's "Beverly Hills, 90210" spinoff, which has added "90210" alum Jennie Garth to the cast. Garth's old character, Kelly Taylor, sadly never left the Zip code but is now all grown up and a guidance counselor -- oh, the irony -- at West Beverly Hills High School.

There's also a certain amount of morbid curiosity about CW's burn-the-furniture-to-heat-the-house plans to outsource its Sunday prime time to the production house-cum-ad agency Media Rights Capital, in partnership with Tribune Broadcasting. Not coincidentally, Tribune owns the CW stations in critical TV markets, including No. 1-ranked New York and No. 2-ranked Los Angeles, without which CW is pretty much out of business.

Fox is expected to wax enthusiastic about J.J. Abrams's new drama, "Fringe." It's about an FBI agent investigating paranormal phenomena, but it's not an "X-Files" rip-off because the agent is a chick.

"Sit Down, Shut Up" is the latest animated comedy in line for Fox's Sunday slate, from "Arrested Development" 's Mitchell Hurwitz, featuring Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Henry Winkler providing voices of a small-town high school's dysfunctional faculty. There's also a new comedy called "The Inn," about the dysfunctional staff at a hip Manhattan hotel. Not to mention "Cleveland," the spinoff of Seth McFarlane's animated dysfunctional-family sitcom "The Family Guy."

To clear room for all this hilarity, Fox has put out of its misery the comedy "Back to You," about a dysfunctional TV newsroom.