• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, July 10, 2007

Kevin Reilly will now be in the great comedic position of defending two different network's prime-time schedules in the space of eight weeks.

In mid-May, he was talking up NBC's "Bionic Women" as the president of NBC Entertainment. Now, come July 22, as the new president of Fox Entertainment, he'll tell TV critics that this was  a load of crap -- that the only thing that matters is  "American Idol" and the  new sitcom "Back To You" featuring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton.

For Reilly, the move is a blessing -- going from a last-place network to No. 1. It's like winning the lotto, he says. 

In reality, Fox may not trot out Reilly for an actual presentation. One assumes that Peter Liguori, his old FX boss, now chairman of Fox Entertainment, will still man the helm in front of the critics this time around.

No matter. One can expect perhaps even more derisive questions from the press -- always looking for juicy bits for their fall programming and corporate TV stories. 

What does this say about executives and the media? Perhaps more than ever, it's about the term "frenemies" --- those executives who exist in dual states as friends and enemies, executives who shift around the business taking new corporate positions quicker than a 30-second commercial.

A lot of this comes from the fact Reilly's switch meant NBC wasn't all that interested in any possible "non-compete" provisions in Reilly's contract. Rather, it was willing to make the big switch to TV producer Ben Silverman for its future entertainment programming needs.

The melding and switching of executives between networks all means this is one big business -- with sometimes no discernable differences. Mainline sitcoms such as the one Fox has with "Back To You" seemingly could run anywhere - specifically CBS, for example. Many network production divisions produce shows for other networks: NBC Universal does just that with "House" for Fox.

Reilly addressing TV critics might just offer this:  Remember what I said in New York about how niche, but not high-rated, Thursday NBC comedies would do this year? Forget about it. I want to talk with you about "Kitchen Nightmares."