Reilly wasn’t alone in his impatience. CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler also called a halt to questions on the topic Saturday after being asked several. Tassler was unhappy with NBC’s Greenblatt, who said that CBS’ ‘‘Criminal Minds’’ was worse than ‘‘Dexter’’ ever was in terms of content. She said it was a mistake to allow the discussion ‘‘devolve into my show versus your show.’’

CBS is on pace to be the nation’s most-watched television network for the 10th time in 11 years, and has done so with a huge fictional body count. The network’s prime-time schedule is dominated by procedurals that usually involve solving violent crimes. Tassler said CBS would begin promoting on the Super Bowl a summer series based on a Stephen King book about a town trapped under an invisible dome, the promo clip shown to reporters included drawings of body parts dropping from the sky, a pacemaker bursting out of a man’s chest and a bloody hammer being cleaned in a sink.

NBC illustrated a similar disconnect. As its executives said NBC wasn’t a ‘‘shoot ‘em up’’ network, a highlight reel of ‘‘Revolution’’ was shown that that included a swordfight, a standoff between two men with guns, a gunfight and a building blown up with a body flying through the air.

Tassler said CBS will show ‘‘awareness and sensitivity’’ as it moves the process of making pilots and selecting series that will run on the network in coming years.