It’s a funny thing, TCA Press Tour. On the one hand, as Daily Beast editor Kate Aurthur pointed out in a tweet, the networks profess to hate it. The Tour costs them a lot of money, time, and sanity.  They put on a show for us, and often get nothing but griping about their products in return.

Without Press Tour, however, think of all the wrangling they’d have to do when major TV news implosions occur. Phones would be ringing off the hook. Reporters would be jockeying for position and screaming if they don’t get the story angles they want when they want it. Mass hysteria.

Tour is also something of a mixed blessing for TV writers. Entertainment business news is breaking all the time, but it certainly seems to go nuclear when most of us are brought together in a hotel ballroom. Often the news is very inside baseball, such as the sudden resignation of ABC Entertainment head Steve McPherson on the first day of Tour, followed shortly by trade reports that he was the subject of a sexual harrassment probe. Critics care because McPherson’s the guy we talk to about ABC’s lineup, and as such, some of us like to imagine we have something of a relationship with him.

So things of this nature happen, we express shock! (Not really.) Alarm! (Actually, executives get spectacularly booted all the time. Right, Ben Silverman?) Then we sharpen our knives for the network’s executive session. Sadly, the word is that ABC isn’t having one. (UPDATE: On Friday ABC announced that ABC Family’s Paul Lee had officially been named as McPherson’s successor, so there will be a short  session on Sunday after all.)

This news has very little impact on the typical viewer. As such, it was quickly swept under the rug when Fox’s (highly orchestrated?) “Idol” bombshell exploded late this afternoon in the form of a Variety story announcing Ellen DeGeneres‘ sudden and not altogether surprising exit, either by choice or by force. That, people care about.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves a bit.  “Idol” dominated the early evening news, but Showtime opened the day with four panels, three of them actually worth our time.

The day started with a tour of “The Big C,“  which stars Laura Linney and officially premieres August 16, although you can watch the pilot right now. In the half-hour dramedy, Linney plays a woman who receives a cancer diagnosis and decides to take what time she has left and live it to the fullest.

Whether the show becomes a hit depends largely on how much people are willing to spend time with a character who may be outlandish and hilarious, but is dying before their eyes.  It’s a tough sell. But there’s no denying the cast’s chemistry and the absolute luminosity of Laura Linney. The entire panel was something of an eat-pray-love fest as the stars talked about the beauty of living in the now. After Oliver Platt asked, “Why do we start to live beautifully when we get a death sentence?” and Gabourey Sidibe pointed out, “whatever plan you have for your life, you are wrong a lot of times,” it was hard not to commit for at least a few installments.

Once that panel’s high wore off, though, I remembered a vexing truth about Showtime comedies: they’re not particularly funny. “Comedy” seems to be a term the premium cable channel uses because it’s more succinct than “half-hour oddity,” or “30-minute award nomination bait.”

Happily we were reminded of that by watching the clip for “Episodes,” an upcoming comedy about a disastrous American remake of a nice British series.  The clip reel was genuinely hilarious, and what exchanges we saw between series star Matt LeBlanc and his British co-stars Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan were gut-busting.

Executive producers and writers David Crane (“Friends”) and Jeffrey Klarik (“The Class”) consistently made us giggle as they described the horrific sausage making process a series goes through as its churned through the Hollywood machine, which is precisely what “Episodes” is about. It’s a shame we have to suffer through a slew of substandard comedies this fall while we wait for it; “Episodes” premieres in January.

Keep reading for more details on “Dexter” and a breakdown of the CW panels.

Before “Episodes,” key cast and producers from “Dexter” took the stage and told us absolutely nothing about the numerous guest stars set to appear this season, a list that includes Julia Stiles, Shawn Hatosy, Peter Weller and Katherine Moennig. But what they did say is a) this season is about “atonement,” b) Julie Benz will be back in some capacity, but not as a ghost because Harry is the sole owner of that territory;  lastly,  c) Dexter’s fellow cops are getting very suspicious of him.

In short, Showtime continues to be worth the extra charge on our cable bills. With time, its series may get bigger ratings than some of their network counterparts…well, at least the ones on The CW.

This is not to imply the tiniest network is set for a middling fall. It’s premiering two new shows, and each stand a good chance of finding an audience.

“Nikita” has enjoyed positive buzz since critics received the pilot a few weeks ago, and Maggie Q‘s friendliness pretty much completed the seduction. In fact, many were so charmed by Miss Quigley that they were able to forgive and forget the fact that series executive producer McG, who professed an affection for empowering female characters, was the man responsible for giving The Pussycat Dolls a TV show that lasted for two cycles.

This could have something to do with the fact that in the posters for “Nikita,” she’s holding a gun and wearing a tight bodysuit that shows off a tattoo on her hip. A real tattoo. That touched off about ten minutes of conversation about her tats and what they mean, which is what happens when a gorgeous model-slash-action-star gets a decent pilot nobody wants to bad mouth.

“Hellcats” also could be largely critic-proof because the pilot that looks and feels like a standard CW show, and should be helped along by the fact that it stars Ashley Tisdale, aka “High School Musical‘s” Sharpay. Good fit is everything with this boutique network.

The main piece that everything else seems to hang off of is “Gossip Girl,” which opens the season with a two-episode Paris fling that pulls Clemence Poesy in for a guest star stint. Executive producer Stephanie Savage also said that Georgina Sparks (Michelle Trachtenberg) is returning, and we will be seeing more of her “in more ways than one.”

As we were settling into “Gossip” bliss, BAM! The “Idol” tweet went out.

So, as in life, Fox trumped The CW yet again…and that network’s turn isn’t until next week. However, “Idol” has a long tradition of giving gossipy gifts to Press Tour, and Fox publicists had hinted that several key announcements about the judges panel would be made on Monday.

As Day 2 came to a close, other “Idol” morsels leaked into the press, including the far from surprising report that Kara DioGuardi also got cut, and that the new panel would consist of Randy Jackson and…Jennifer Lopez? And Steven Tyler?

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