Nikki Finke poured cold water on excited Poehler fans yesterday by posting the report, which showed that preview audiences thought the show was a "carbon copy" of The Office, "derivative," "forced," predictable," "unoriginal," and "lacking in character development, even for a pilot" (ouch!).

Parks and Recreation is from Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, who produce The Office, and it shares the hit show's mockumentary format as it follows a city bureaucrat played by Poehler trying to turn an abandoned pit into a park. NBC has high hopes for the show because—no wait, NBC Universal Chief Jeff Zucker abandoned all hope last week when he said that NBC would never be No. 1 in prime time again. Anyway, NBC still wants the show to do well, so Silverman tried to spin the leak to EW:

All of the research we do around initial rough cuts is negative. If you had seen the initial research on all of ours and our competitors' successful shows, it tends to be like that.

Bravo! No worries, then. Parks and Recreation will suck no more than anything else on TV.

Of course, if all focus groups always says they hate every show they're shown, that would raise the question as to why networks continue to pay research firms gobs of money to conduct them. A perusal of the Parks and Recreation report shows the depth of insight and guidance you can get from a gang of unemployed mouth-breathers:

1. People want a show that's exactly like The Office.

Expectations for this show are very high, especially among OFFICE viewers. Many had seen the promos and were expecting an "OFFICE-type mockumentary" with the same tone.

2. Parks and Recreation sucks because it is almost exactly like The Office!

But [they] felt the pilot was too close and similar to the OFFICE.

3. They hated The Office at first, too, but gave it time to grow on them.

However, many OFFICE fans were quick to point out that THE OFFICE did not become their favorite show overnight.

4. Parks and Recreation has about two episodes to become The Office.

[B]ut viewers will expect to see the show to be as good as THE OFFICE soon. Furthermore, labeling the show as being "from the producers of THE OFFICE" adds credibly (sic) to the show and helps raise viewers' expectations.

5. Too much of the show takes place at that abandoned pit.

Focus needs to evolve away from the pit—consider showing Leslie [Amy Poehler] and her team dealing with various parks and recreation duties.

6. More pit please!

Highest positive spike comes from Leslie falling into the pit.

· In other NBC-related news, Selma Blair is in negotiations to join Molly Shannon in cast of the sitcom pilot Kath & Kim, another adaptation of one of those pre-approved foreign hits Silverman loves so dearly. [THR]
· In what could be the most optimistic words written about the WGA/AMPTP war in weeks, Var welcomes the beginning of informal, post-DGA-deal talks between the studios and Guild thusly: "Today could be the beginning of the end of the three-month writers strike." [Variety]
· NBC's block of Must See Screaming At Briefcases And Failed Pro Bodybuilders Shooting Tennis Balls At Part-Time Personal Trainers TV (i.e., Deal or No Deal and Gladiators) romps to Nielsen victory on Monday night. [THR]

"Conan O'Brien will take over 'The Tonight Show' in 2009," NBC Universal President and CEO Jeff Zucker said Monday in New York at an event arranged by Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Zucker said he'd like Leno to remain with the company and that "we are in those conversations now."

"I'm hopeful that Jay will be with us," the executive told the question-and-answer session.

Continuing in a more somber tone, Zucker added, "Of course, sometimes these conversations don't lead anywhere, and a loved one makes the choice to leave the family. We'd really hate to see that happen. And it would be sadder still if, on the way home from the conversation in which we decided to go our separate ways, the brakes on one of those unreliable old jalopies Jay is so fond of mysteriously give out, and the car winds up in a ditch off of Mullholland Drive, tragically cutting short his search for a new family."

• NBC exec: Leno will leave 'Tonight' on schedule [CNN.com]

Just five days after SNL's "Dick in a Box" (variously and coyly referred to as "A Special Box," "Special Treat in a Box," and "A Special Christmas Box") debuted on the show and on the YouTubes, the NY Times delivers the inside scoop on how a brave consortium of late-night programming executives, lawyers, and NBC's highest-ranking officers decided to release an uncensored version of the liberally bleeped clip on the internet, allowing fans to remove any lingering doubts that the male sex organs being sneakily proffered to the delighted women in the video may have, in fact, been referred to as "cock(s) in a box," best network decency practices be (cautiously) damned. Reports the Times:

"We were all laughing," said [late-night programming executive Rick] Ludwin, who had been accompanied by a representative from the NBC legal department. And then Mr. Ludwin said he had a change of heart.

"Those people who go on the Internet will not be shocked by this," Mr. Ludwin recalled thinking. "Obviously there are some people who will be offended. Those people are probably unlikely to go searching for it on the Internet. It's just funny."

Still, the material was touchy enough, Mr. Ludwin said, that he sought final approval for the Web version of the video from the highest echelons of NBC, including Kevin Reilly, the president of NBC Entertainment , and Jeff Zucker, chief executive of NBC Universal Television Group.. Both approved the idea, he said. Another executive suggested that a disclaimer be placed before the Web-only version of the video that warned of its explicit content, a proposal that was immediately accepted.

The rest, as they say, is history: Zucker and Reilly approved the clip (which would go on to rack up over 2.5 million views on YouTube), shared an affirming high-five over their mutual, cutting-edge embracing of the internet platform, then briefly mused about "how awesome" it would be to cut holes in some boxes and spend the last few work days before Christmas gifting their privates to various staffer members.

Because we must, here's another opportunity to watch the clip. Good news: After a few days, It still holds up!

• Censored 'SNL' Sketch Jumps Bleepless Onto the Internet [NY Times]
• Previously; 'SNL' Puts Dick In Box In Attempt To Go Viral [Defamer]