Sadly, the impeccably eyebrowed bluesman Ben Silverman didn't decide to dial into this morning's conference call with his harmonica-playing sidekick Fisher Stevens in tow. However, we are happy to report that Silverman successfully managed to reset his alarm clock after yesterday's earthquake in Los Angeles and, for once, remembered to show up for an important meeting. And it even seems he had time to down a cup of coffee before the proceedings, as he was in top Silvermanian form during the call. When he wasn't being pressed to answer the tough questions, he found time to declare war on repeats, praise TV critic Alan Sepinwall, and respond to an inquiry from noted Silverman basher (and Vulture buddy) Nikki Finke with a well-timed Obama joke!

Although news that NBC had officially renewed Chuck for a third season leaked out yesterday, Silverman found the time to sneak in a shout-out to New Jersey Star-Ledger television columnist Alan Sepinwall during the call for his instrumental role in saving the program ("Our core audience, and the online community, that is, Alan Sepinwall of the New Jersey Star-Ledger, drove people to demand that Chuck be picked up. Unlike everybody else, we listen to both our audience and our advertiser and are able to make decisions collectively"). And when Nikki Finke threw an off-speed pitch Silverman's way by asking the white-tiger enthusiast if he was perturbed by President Barack Obama's repeated insistence on interrupting the network's prime-time objectives with his frequent press conferences, Silverman joked that NBC "has shared the fall schedule" with President Obama "and he's really excited about the Winter Olympics."

But perhaps most interesting, the cost-slashing Silverman seems to be making good on his promise that NBC would commit to airing new (albeit wildly inexpensive) programs year-round. Because NBC's winter TV schedule will be interrupted for two weeks in February when the 2010 Winter Games roll around, Beijing Ben explained that "you'll be seeing deeper and richer ordering patterns throughout these years to stay in originals ... What we've seen is repeats don't work anymore." We can hardly wait to see how Moonvest responds!

NBC announces its fall and midseason lineups [Show Tracker/LAT]
Primetime Pilot Panic: NBC Talks 'Chuck', 'Medium', 'Earl', 'Leno', And Obama [DHD]