A day in the life of press tour: ABC

Yawn. Even on the West Coast, the All-Star Game made me stay up later than I should have, as did my contemplation of the news that Amy Poehler is in final negotiations to star in "The Office" spin-off. (Though more and more, it sounds less like a spin-off than like a spiritually similar show from the same producers: "Futurama" instead of "Cleveland.") I like Poehler, and think she could bring many of the same things to the table that Steve Carell did, but I'm wondering about the human element, since I think she's usually best in broader parts.

Anyway, after the jump, the rundown of ABC's schedule today, along with some speculation on how things may go down.

9:00-9:45 a.m.: An executive session with Steve McPherson. Given ABC's concentration of scripted dramas, I'm guessing there will be a lot of strike fallout questions.

9:45-10:45 a.m.: Writing break. I'm not writing a column for tomorrow, and won't have another press tour-related column in the paper until at least Monday (Emmy nominations will take up Friday's column), so hopefully I'll be able to blog more sessions over the next few days.

10:45-11:30 a.m.: "Eli Stone," the first of many sessions in which ABC puts about 8,000 people on stage (the whole cast plus Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim) and the vast majority of the questions go to either the showrunners or the lead.

12-2 p.m.: Lunch with Julianne Hough from "Dancing with the Stars" (she's hosting a country music special) and yet another writing break.

2-2:45 p.m.: "Life on Mars," in which we will complain about not seeing a pilot yet, followed by the producers explaining that they're doing significant reshoots and recasting, followed by us asking why ABC decided to go put a show in need of so much tinkering on its fall schedule.

3-3:45 p.m.: "Scrubs," in which we will try to get Bill Lawrence to talk as much smack as possible about Ben Silverman.

4-4:45 p.m.: "Opportunity Knocks," the Ashton Kutcher-produced game show, which we also haven't seen. Should be illuminating.

6:00 p.m.-whenever: When networks host multiple days, they obviously have their non-party party on one of the nights, and then they have to come up with an idea for the other. On occasion, they don't bother with anything, but more often than not they'll do some kind of low-key event, like cocktails with executives so we can learn about the intricacies of the business in an informal setting. ABC is going a slightly flashier route by bringing out a bunch of "Dancing with the Stars" pros -- Alec, Edyta, Karina, Kym, Mark and Derek -- to give dance lessons to any interested critics. As I have two left feet, I'll likely catch up on work instead.