New NBC Exec Ben Silverman Gets Thumbs-up at TCA
Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff, NBC Press Tour by Chris Haston/NBC
It was fair to wonder why NBC put Kevin Reilly in the executive ejector seat just after signing him to a new multiyear contract. But after seeing his replacement
Ben Silverman's debut performance at the Television Critics Association press tour, we're not wondering anymore.
Instead of the doing a rope-a-dope with reporters because he's only been in the job a month, Silverman came out with guns blazing, firing off one programming announcement after another. He even made a deal with legendary sitcom producer
Norman Lear. That's red meat for the TCA, since many of its members love TV the way it used to be.
He's even ignored the mandate that NBC chief Jeff Zucker publicly issued last year that the network was out of the business of programming 8 o'clock with new, expensive scripted sitcoms and dramas. The first scheduling move under Silverman's watch was moving the new, expensive scripted hi-tech thriller
Chuck to Monday at 8, leading into
Heroes and
Journeyman and turning the night into a block of sci-fi/fantasy dramas.
Silverman doesn't appear to have a cynical bone in his body, despite the challenges facing the broadcast networks. He's young and enthusiastic but has a healthy sense of TV history. You believe him when he talks about how thrilled he was to make a deal with Lear, who revolutionized prime time when he broke through with
All in the Family. He is a born carnival barker. You believe him when he tells you with a straight face that he'd love to have
Rosie O'Donnell be a contestant on the new celebrity version of
The Apprentice.
In recent years the mood at fourth-place NBC has been darker than an episode of the
Black Donnellys. Everyone at the network will tell you that the mood has lightened up considerably since the regime change occurred. A showman like Silverman buys NBC time until it gets what it needs the most: another big hit.
- Reporting by Stephen Battaglio
