Chatting the other day with Susanne Daniels, co-author of "Season Finale: The Unexpected Rise and Fall of The WB and UPN" ($25.95, HarperCollins), it felt like a conversation with a kindred spirit, not a network executive (now at Lifetime) whose job involves cheerleading for a network. It was different from interviewing network execs at press tour where they can, understanably, feel besieged if things aren't going well for their company.

In "Season Finale," Daniels seems to have some disdain for those of us who cover TV. And press tour gets referred to repeatedly as a "junket," which it is not. (If it were, networks should have been footing the hotel, airfare and incidentals my newspapers have paid for the past 12 years.)

It comes as some relief that in "Season Finale" Daniels, who is married to "The Office" showrunner Greg Daniels, confirms what WB executives and publicists denied for years: The WB and UPN were in a fierce battle. Execs from one network always dismissed the other as "not competition," but Daniels shows just how competitive the two baby networks were in "Season Finale," an entertaining, behind-the-scenes look at the chaotic TV business.

Daniels also makes note of the fact that by the time The WB ended, it had lost its distinctive edge by relying too much on a formula that had worked in the past but resulted in too many similar shows, a concern also voiced by more than a few TV critics.

And that's the irony: Much as TV critics are distrustful of network executives and execs are dismissive of critics who don't know what's going on behind-the-scenes, in the end, both camps want the same thing: Good TV. And members of both camps generally share a love of TV and its history, too. That's why it was fun to commiserate with Daniels, not in her role as a TV exec, but as an author and TV fan.

Here's more from my conversation with Daniels. Much of this may only be of interest to die-hard TV fans, historians and insiders, but if the Internet has taught me anything, I know they're out there and they'll find this.

Question: In the book, you recount the time WB mastermind Jamie Kellner named you to head up a division of Turner without asking you if you wanted the job. You learned about it through congratulatory phone calls and reading a story in Daily Variety. Did Jamie ever apologize?

Susanne Daniels: Can you imagine? I swear to God, what's in there is actually what happened. There was no apology.

Q: Are you and Jamie still friends?

SD: Yes, we're still friends. I have great respect for him and I always will. He's an agressive guy and he did what he needed to do. I'll always be grateful to him. It was a great ride.

Q: In the book you describe the orchestrated ouster of Jordan Levin, your successor as entertainment president at The WB. I always liked Jordan and was surprised to read that it sounded like he got a little too big for his britches. Are you still friendly with him and what did he think of the book?

SD: I'm still friendly with him and you should feel free to talk to him about the book [an e-mail to Levin was not returned at press time]. Overall he liked it, but he may take issue with certain things in it, but I will tell you I stand by everything in the book.

Q: And what did Jamie think of the book?

SD: It's funny, you are asking me about the two people in the entire book who didn't officially tell me what they thought about the book. I've talked to Jamie's wife, who was very complimentary and lovely, and I haven't talked to Jamie. I will see Jamie and talk to him. I like keeping in touch with him, but I only heard through other sources on those two in particular.

Q: What happened with "Savannah"? That was one of The WB's first breakout shows, but it was canceled in its second season. Creatively it was doing just fine.

SD: We killed that show with scheduling. We were too close to it. We thought we had more momentum than we really had. We got ahead of ourselves and thought we could make it work moving it to Monday to anchor Monday night. That was a huge mistake. We didn't have that kind of momentum and audience loyalty. We should have stapled that show to the [Sunday] time slot and I think it would have gone the distance.

Q: Were you surprised The CW didn't have more success this fall given the quality of the shows they developed?

SD: Extremely surprised. I thought they put some good shows on. I really don't know what's going on. It might be the marketing efforts. I don't think the marketing was as strong as some of the shows. They put everything behind "Gossip Girl" and I don't know if that would have been my choice. That show didn't break out. It performed solid, but I really thought something would break out.

Q: What do you think of ABC Family's efforts to remake itself as the new WB?

SD: There is no question that's their goal. Maybe at the end of the day that's what's hurting The CW. I think it's nice positioning. If you look at all of Disney [which owns ABC and ABC Family], Disney Channel tops off at age 14 max and I think ABC Family can take on [viewers] from where [Disney Channel] leaves off. ... I think it's a good place for them to be.

Q: Anything in particular you've taken with you in terms of business practices or image building from The WB to Lifetime?

SD: The most obvious thing I learned is how critical marketing is and it's why you see Bob [Bibb] and Lew [Goldstein], who were co-heads of marketing at The WB, as co-heads of marketing at Lifetime.

Q: "Army Wives" was a huge hit for Lifetime last summer, but with the writers' strike, where does that show stand? Were any scripts completed for season two?

SD: I think they'd written two, not enough to put the show back in production. It's a huge bummer, a huge disappointment to have the highest-rated drama in the history of the network, clearly a breakout hit with the kind of reviews you dream of, [and not be able to go into production on season two right away]. That's killing me right now.