Equally important, the programming executives said, is the growing belief that pilots are an inefficient way to choose shows.
By the standards of broadcast television, however, that sort of audience can get a programming executive fired.
And only CBS has the same top programming executives in place as last year.
The programming executives are just now beginning to catch their breath.
One programming executive told him to make Maggie 10 years younger and unmarried.
Actually, it turns out that even the top programming executives do not always know for sure.
The company, the nation's biggest radio broadcaster, fired two programming executives last month after a review by the attorney general's investigation.
She is a former programming executive for the Comedy Central.
O'Hara will live without them because they do not fit within the fiscal limits he learned to abide by as a programming executive.
He is considering firing some of his longtime programming executives.