I think NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt was having a bad day.

But first: Let me take you, dear reader, back to January 13 of two thousand sixteen. Most of us were carefully planning our preferred method of quitting our jobs after winning the Powerball?and dutifully counting the minutes until we became billionaires.

Since you’re reading this column I’m assuming you didn’t win; and since I’m writing this column feel free to assume I did not win either.

Choosing to hedge my bets I actually went to work Wednesday and awaited my inevitable ascension to dynastic wealth and power normally reserved for inheritors of ancient family fortunes or the guy who made Candy Crush.

Now every day I have a variety of national news stories to choose from for publication in the pages of the Times-Republican; this means that much of my days is spent reading a lot of news stories and thinking “is this something people would actually care to read about?”

It was during this decision making process that I first noticed Mr. Greenblatt’s bad day.

You see, this past week was the Television Critics Association (TCA) winter press tour. That’s where members of the TCA (another in a long line of organizations that refuse to grant me admittance based solely on the flimsy excuse that I have never applied) meet in sunny Pasadena, California with … TV … to discuss the upcoming half-season.

Seriously, these guys meet with pretty much everyone from TV. On their schedule of events the first three days were listed as “Cable.” Think about how high your channel guide goes, then think about being one of the critics that has to think of a question to ask Catherine Mary Stewart about starring in the Chiller channels original adaptation of “Ghoul.”

All of those things are real.

So the TCA waded through the whole of cable programming, then Hulu/ABC, the CW, Amazon, CBS and Showtime until finally arriving on Wednesday at two days of NBC coverage.

Since NBC was the topic, naturally, Mr. Greenblatt was the spokesman for the day.

So while I’m looking up stories for the “Entertainment” section of the paper I?notice a lot of stories about NBC at the TCAs, and Mr. Greenblatt’s name keeps popping up.

First was a story about how NBC was announcing that the cast of their massive 90s hit “Friends” were getting back together for a tribute to a director named James Burrows who has directed a few episodes of pretty much everything on TV.

Greenblatt was excitedly announcing a reunion of one of the last successful NBC comedies until he was interrupted by fellow NBC exec Paul Telegdy, who explained that, while the cast would all honor Mr. Burrow’s for his lifetime of work in TV, only “a majority” would be on hand for the celebration.

Right, because David Schwimmer is just that busy.

So Greenblatt gets a bit of ding. A second story moved about NBC’s reasoning behind having Trump host SNL last December.

Responding to questions about how NBC could reconcile “getting out of business” with Trump, yet months later asking him to host SNL, Greenblatt responded that Trump, like it or not, is now a major political force in America. When reporters continued to beleaguer the Trump point Greenblatt said “If we were in the business of never having anyone guest on the network who disagreed with our views, we would be out of business.”

So when the reporters continued to ask about NBC’s turnaround regarding Trump, Paul Telegdy once again jumped in and said “Does that answer the Donald Trump question? It is as clear to us, and it is as clear to the people who produce in our news division and our entertainment division, what the differences are.”

So, Greenblatt is the man in charge, but is once again talked-over by Telegdy. One more reason Greenblatt was having a bad day.

Then a third story appeared on the AP Entertainment wire questioning if “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon had a secret drinking problem.

Really? That guy? The goofy smiley dude that took over “The Tonight Show” after NBC stabbed Conan in the back?

Now, the AP doesn’t traffic in tabloid journalism, so there had to be something going on here. I clicked the link and, lo and behold, the whole story stems from a quote by, you guessed it, Robert Greenblatt at the TCA’s press tour.

Apparently Fallon has a “falling down” problem; not the funny kind, but the “it keeps happening and he keeps hurting himself” kind; he’s done it three times in the last four months.

Now, as hilarious as the idea of Jimmy “Dancing on Sunshine” Fallon as some kind of hard core alcoholic is, and it really is, the notion seems absurd and the only “proof” is a few drunken blurbs in the gossip pages of the New York Post.

So, naturally, when asked about it, Mr. Greenblatt must have laughed it off, right?

“(Jimmy Fallon) doesn’t have a drinking problem that any of us know about,” said Greenblatt.

Ok, so Fallon is CLEARLY an alcoholic. “That we know about?” How shady is that?

Imagine the President saying “we don’t have any missiles over there that we know about.” What does that mean? It means we have a lot of missiles over there and they’re pointed somewhere they shouldn’t be.

This is the fun of reading dozens of news stories every day: I got to see the downward turn of a TV executive’s day, from a disappointing “Friends” almost-reunion to having to defend his Trump decisions from repeated accusations to finally giving a plausible-deniability answer about Jimmy Fallon’s drinking problem.

Now, I ask you, what really happened on Wednesday? Did Greenblatt have a bad day that resulted in him giving some less-than-polished answers to an allegedly baseless accusation about his premiere late night host’s after work activities, or does Fallon secretly have a drinking problem and Greenblatt is providing cover for when he inevitably has to fire Fallon?

I don’t know for sure; but I do know that I’d still rather watch Conan any day. Stupid NBC. Go team Coco.

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Copy Editor Wes Burns is a Sunday columnist. The views expressed in this column are personal views of the writer and don’t necessarily reflect the views of the T-R. Contact Wes Burns at 641-753-6611 or wburns@timesrepublican.com