Watchdog

Betsy Thomas on not having time in nine episodes to further explore P.J. Franklin's career: "As our episodes dwindle, it's harder and harder to fit in everything you want to do. To do a show about her job, usually that story will take up the most time in the episode. We have seven characters to service. Plus we try to give her some semblance of a love life, since that's what the majority of our audience tunes in for."

On having only nine episodes this season: "I wish we had 22 episodes. I wanted to do a whole story idea arc for her where she got a promotion and was going to become a columnist and there was a whole thing about her being promoted because she’s a woman and skipped over these guys and jumped ahead of Bobby. But there was no time to tell that story."

On why she made P.J. a sportswriter: "I did it because I felt like being a comedy writer is a very male-dominated field, and I felt another male-dominated field was sportswriting. It's similar. There aren’t a lot of women. Certainly there are women doing it, but it's very much a boys' club, which comedy writing is as well."

On criticism from sportswriters that the show is unrealistic: "I read press and sportswriters saying, 'This wouldn’t happen,' or, 'Why isn’t she working all the time?' I was thinking when '30 Rock' came out that Tina [Fey's] character does what I do, and how it is ridiculous as a show runner that she has time to do anything."

On the nature of the audience, given it is a show about relationships, but mostly features men: "When the show first came out I think there was an assumption it was very female skewing, but we have discovered how strong our male audience is. I think they finally realized, 'Oh, it is both genders.' I think it changed a little bit."

On whether she expects to be picked up for a third season: "It’s like saying, 'Are the Cubs going to make the playoffs this year?' It looks good, but anything can happen."

More on not having P.J. shown working this season: "I think one of the big questions, and it’s something we talked about at length at the beginning of last season, is the job. What is she doing? So we had the idea that she becomes a columnist, a promotion . . . That continues to be a world and story area we try to figure out."

More on not showing her job: "We’re a little hamstrung by budget, too. We've had great ideas like she covers the Bears, goes to Soldier Field. But that's hard to fake [in a studio]."

On why she is a Cubs fan after growing up in the Detroit area: "It's my husband's fault. My husband is a lifelong Cubs fan. I had abandoned baseball in the late ‘80s, but in 1998 I met my husband and we lived in Chicago together for a while and went to Wrigley a couple of games a week."