Just because you took the weekend off (and we hope you did) doesn’t mean TV reporters spent theirs lazing by the pool at the Beverly Hilton.

Saturday was “emerging networks” day, with both Amazon and Hulu presenting. Both subscription video on demand (SVOD) services brought out some big guns of their own.

“X-Files"’ Chris Carter told reporters he hopes to be able to produce 99 episodes of his new show, “The After,” which is based on Dante’s Inferno and its 99 cantos, for Amazon Prime. The first four two-hour installments of “The After,” about eight strangers who have to work together to survive the apocalypse, will be released in 2015, leaving 91 episodes/hours to go.

Amazon also will release all ten episodes of its new series, “Transparent”—created and produced by Jill Soloway and starring Jeffrey Tambor as a man transitioning to a woman—in late September, a la Netflix.

Hulu, often an overlooked player in the burgeoning SVOD sector, made a big splash by announcing that it would stream the entire “South Park” catalog, bringing show creators Matt Parker and Trey Stone to press tour. Hulu has been aggressively grabbing off-network content, including CBS’ “Elementary,” Lionsgate’s “Nashville,“which airs on ABC, and NBCUniversal’s “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and “The Mindy Project,” which air on Fox.

NBC kicked off the broadcast network portion of press tour on Sunday, NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt getting taking questions early. NBC announced renewals for three summer unscripted shows – “America’s Got Talent,” “American Ninja Warrior” and “Last Comic Standing,” all of which join scripted comedy “Night Shift,” which received its second-season renewal earlier in the month.

Greenblatt, who’s been running NBC for 3 1/2 years after heading Showtime for seven and once heading Fox’s primetime, seems to be getting ever more comfortable in front of the press hordes. Asked what advice he would give to whoever is going to lead Fox, which looks like it’s going to be Twentieth Century Fox Television Co-Chairs Dana Walden and Gary Newman, Greenblatt said:

“First of all, you have to love the medium. If you don’t really want to be in the broadcast TV landscape, you shouldn’t be. You have to find the best people that you can in every area of programming and scheduling and everything, business affairs. Every show is a challenge to put together, and it’s not just what the idea is or what the storyline is. It’s the deal and it’s very complicated.

“[Y]ou have to find the best people you can, and hopefully you want to make a lot of shows and .. you’re okay with the volume, because the volume is the killer. It’s the killer not only day to day, but because our jobs are so full of details. f you’re doing two shows a year, you can handcraft them. You can be all over them. You can make sure an episode doesn’t go out the door that isn’t as great as it possibly can be, but when you’re doing 15 or 20 shows a year, the volume just gets away from you, so you have to be comfortable with that.

“The other thing I wish for anybody who has a job like this, and I’m not sure anybody has this, but you have to have great upper management, and I have the best. I have the greatest people that I work for who give us so much support and latitude that I think you almost can’t win unless you have that as well.”

Critics also are expressing their frustration with last Thursday’s Emmy nominations, which snubbed many of their favorite shows and are asking network showrunners and producers their feelings about the nominations process. Greenblatt was diplomatic, yet honest, in his answer:

“I think emotionally we all care,” he said. “Of course, want that validation from that body. At the same time, there’s so many great shows on so many networks now, and cable has the advantage of doing material that’s darker, more interesting, on some levels you can go into subject matter that feels cooler than some of the stuff that we can do. It’s just a fact of life, and every year I say to Richard Licata, whose lifeblood is all about helping us get Emmy nominations, at the end of the day, should we debate the fact that James Spader is one of the best actors working on television or working anywhere and isn’t nominated, alongside some actors that are not nominated? Sure. We can debate that. At the end of the day, I’m not sure what good it does us.”

And one of the most hyped pieces of news of the weekend: Katherine Heigl, who’s starring in NBC’s new fall drama, “State of Affairs,” doesn’t see herself as difficult, although her reputation has indicated differently. Has any actress ever actually admitted to being difficult?

Image of Katherine Heigl, above, courtesy of Today.com.

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