Not everyone who takes the stage at the Television Critics Association is as entertaining as Kelly Ripa, but when you池e in press conferences for eight to 10 hours a day, you have to stay awake even if the people talking are saying things you致e heard a thousand times before.

Because sooner or later, one of them is going to answer a question we really care about and we all get to rush out of the room and call our editors. In the meantime, we try to stay busy.

This summer痴 wrinkle is "press tour bingo," a game devised by a few critics with surprisingly little time on their hands (and yes, we all wish to remain anonymous, including the guy who made the game board, who was interviewed in today痴 Washington Post). Much like a drinking game, but with far less drinking, bingo-playing critics get to fill in the boxes when any one of 25 designated words or phrases is used in a press conference. (Post-press conference scrums and interviews conducted at parties don稚 count, and no, you池e not allowed to ask someone, "Was the experience an organic one?")

Would love to tell you what the other buzz words are, but that would kill the game, since, believe it or not, networks actually coach their executives, producers and "talent" before they face a room full of critics.

Sadly, the ABC executive session with ABC entertainment chairman Lloyd Braun and entertainment president Susan Lyne, usually a cliche-fest of enormous proportions, failed to even get on the board this morning.

But we still have 12 days to go...