Upfront

You gotta give NBC's Kevin Reilly credit for being focused like a laser beam.

He soldiered forward with his presentation to advertisers yesterday in the midst of what can be described as an audiovisual meltdown toward the end of the upfront presentation.

Nothing focuses the mind like being in fourth place, apparently.

A powerful L.A. executive who shall go nameless here was aghast at the post-party, saying, "How does that happen?" repeatedly with regard to the presentation's computer hiccups.

Mr. Reilly's polish certainly played better than another NBC executive, whose onstage joke in passing about the AV problems didn't work for me or a couple of the folks I chatted with at parties afterward.

But the consensus was that Mr. Reilly has a better lineup to play than he did last year, so he may be able to look back and laugh.

E-mail Greg Baumann