After a relatively low-key morning with UPN, TCA members moved through several sessions for upcoming series and specials on Showtime. Robert Greenblatt, the network's entertainment president, opened Showtime's afternoon of press conferences by confirming for critics that he is indeed talking with Twentieth Television about picking up Fox' critically acclaimed but ratings challenged comedy, Arrested Development.

"It's only worth continuing if [series creator] Mitch Hurwitz is at the helm running it," Greenblatt said. "He hasn't come to that decision. He's in that period of thinking about whether or not he wants to continue with the show."

While the Development drama continues, Greenblatt has picked up four new series. They include This American Life, an adaptation of Ira Glass' Chicago Public Radio program exploring single themes and topics, hosted by Glass himself; The Tudors, a drama about King Henry VII starring Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (Elvis); and Damon Wayans' The Underground, a sketch comedy program.

The fourth series - a drama titled Dexter about a likeable forensics expert with the Miami Metro Police Department who is also a serial killer with a penchant for grisly vigilante justice, starring Michael C. Hall - had critics buzzing hours later. Showtime presented clips from the pilot that can only be described as thrilling and terrifying, in which a tanned, enthusiastic Hall looked nothing like David Fisher, the pale, pained funeral director he portrayed on HBO's Six Feet Under. Hall was so mesmerizing in the clips that he already seemed a front-runner for an Emmy Award nomination, if not the award itself, for his work on this show.

"This is not your mother's CSI," Greenblatt declared. Dexter will debut later in 2006. It will likely be one of the most written about programs of the year.

Another upcoming Showtime program that will probably generate huge buzz is Liza with a "Z": A Concert for Television, a digitally remastered version of Liza Minnelli's Emmy and Peabody Award-winning 1972 NBC concert special directed by the late Bob Fosse and originally filmed on 16 millimeter stock. Appearing via satellite from Florida, Minnelli was engaging and enthusiastic in promoting the show.

"The thing that I think is unique about this special [is that] it was the first filmed special and it was done in one night," Minnelli explained. "It was one performance only. That was it. That was our shot."