Robert Greenblatt

Despite the lack of movement to resolve the labor dispute between the National Football League and its players, the major broadcast and cable networks that carry the games are expressing confidence that when September rolls around it will be business as usual. This week in New York, networks including NBC, Fox and ESPN are telling advertisers to whom they are presenting their fall lineups that they believe the players and owners will strike a new deal on a collective-bargaining agreement before September.

"Undercovers," a glossy drama about married caterers moonlighting as spies, was positioned by NBC as more than just a glittery entry in its fall lineup when it premiered last September. The series featured two black leads — a rarity in prime-time network TV — and was the centerpiece of the network's aggressive campaign touting its commitment to boosting diversity. NBC trumpeted "Undercovers" as a response to opponents of the network's merger with cable giant Comcast who contended NBC had a historically poor record when it came to placing African Americans in front of and behind the camera.

After the coffee. Before getting up to speed on March Madness. The Skinny: I'm no college basketball fan and even I know Harvard winning is a big upset. So what did I do last night. I did laundry, ate falafel, cleaned the cat box and watched two episodes of "The Mindy Project. " Are you jealous yet? Friday's headlines include the box office preview, a big exit at the Federal Communications Commission and more on all the drama at "The Tonight Show. " Daily Dose:   A little peak into my world.

"The Reagans," the miniseries dropped by CBS following a stream of protests about its portrayal of former President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, will air Nov. 30 on pay-cable Showtime, only two weeks after its originally scheduled network premiere. The timing of the Showtime presentation surprised some industry insiders, who had anticipated that the continuing furor over the miniseries and the crafting of a final version would delay the airing until at least next year.

Star Jones arrived in the ballroom Sunday morning without her husband's last name and without answers to the Most Pressing Question of the day: Star, where is the rest of you? Jones was promoting her new Court TV (which will become TruTV in January) talk show, which begins airing daily at 3 p.m. Aug. 20. She looked happy, her hair in a bob and her new petite bod in a fitted gray dress.

The extremely well-intended "American Family" returns to PBS after a long absence with a whole new format and a brand-new mission. Writer-director Gregory Nava ("El Norte," "Selena") has reconceived the formerly episodic drama -- once left for dead by CBS until PBS and sponsor Johnson & Johnson recognized its cultural significance and fished it out of the bulrushes -- as a 13-episode miniseries thematically hitched to the war in Iraq. It ships out Sunday.

In Providence, R.I., people think "Brotherhood" is one of the more successful shows on television. "Everybody has watched the show, watched the DVDs, watched it on-demand. They know every detail," said Jason Isaacs, who plays Michael Caffee, the criminal son in an emotionally intense and morally compromised Irish American family who was left for dead in Season 1.

Everyone knew that 2007 was a breakout year for big, noisy cable shows, so it wasn't necessarily surprising that the Showtimes and FXs of the world mopped up nominations for the 65th annual Golden Globes on Thursday. It was, however, remarkable that broadcasters -- which as recently as a year ago were talking about a programming renaissance -- saw their series often reduced to asterisks or also-rans in the Globes derby.

Homicide detective Jane Timoney's hair is messy, not tousled, and those bruises on her face are fresh, from a knock-down, drag-out with a perp. She comes by her bloodshot eyes honestly, earned through a mixture of Scotch on the rocks and work-related insomnia. Timoney, as played by Maria Bello in NBC's upcoming drama "Prime Suspect," is just as raw on the inside. She's blatantly ambitious and opportunistic, scooping up a high-profile case moments after a fellow cop drops dead of a heart attack.