NBC's Robert Greenblatt at TCA

NBC’s top entertainment executive, Robert Greenblatt, was a guest during NBC’s session at the Television Critics Association Summer press tour today. While his focus is on NBC’s drama, comedy and reality programming, he had a few things to say about NBC News too.

The Hollywood Reporter‘s Marisa Guthrie reports that Greenblatt weighed in on the Ann Curry transition at “Today,” as well as the decision to put “Rock Center” on Thursdays.

On Curry:

In noting that NBC News is “an incredible asset to the company,” Greenblatt conceded that “shows go through transitions and they’re always difficult. I think everyone inside the news division took as much care as they possibly could (during the Today anchor) transition. Things leak and you have to go out and announce something that you weren’t ready to announce. My heart goes out to everyone involved in that transition including Ann. I have no doubt that (Today) will rebound. I think everybody is really bullish on the future of it.”

On “Rock Center”:

Allowing that the NBC newsmagazine Rock Center with Brian Williams still needs more time to find an audience, Greenblatt attributed its seeming promotion to the coveted Thursday night at 10 p.m. timeslot this fall to the usual jigsaw puzzle of putting together a network schedule. “The schedule only has a finite number of hours on it,” he said. “You can’t put everything in its fantasy time period. Thursday is a challenge that we’re going to continue to work on. We wanted to keep Rock Center on the schedule. We thought it needed a 10 o’clock time period. As the season unfolds, we will look at it and see what happens. I think everyone at the news division knows what the challenges are. They’re definitely working really hard to deliver episodes and stories that are compelling.”