Ben Silverman ushered out at NBC
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Ben Silverman, the man who was supposed to lead NBC back to the top of the ratings mountain, is leaving the network after two years on the job and no change in the standings.
Silverman is "returning to his entrepreneurial roots," as an NBC press release puts it, to form a new multimedia venture with media mogul Barry Diller. He'll stay at the network for a short time to help launch the fall schedule, then depart.
Ben Silverman at NBC: Misses and more misses
NBC Universal has also reorganized its executive structure a bit in the wake of Silverman's departure. He had been co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and Universal Media Studios with Marc Graboff; Graboff will keep the chairman title but will report to Jeff Gaspin, who has the new title of chairman of NBC Universal Television Entertainment.
Gaspin was already the head of NBC Universal's cable portfolio and is now adding broadcast TV to his purview as well.
Ben Silverman's NBC Legacy: Misses and more misses
Silverman's two-year tenure was a roller coaster. NBC has been stuck in fourth place in the ratings for the past couple seasons, but Silverman's vaunted success as a producer -- he counts "The Office," "Ugly Betty" and "The Biggest Loser" among his credits -- didn't translate to hits when he became a network executive.
None of the shows NBC launched last fall made it to a second season. Last December, NBC gave responsibility for prime-time programming to Angela Bromstad and Paul Telegdy, removing Silverman from the programming side.
Silverman's deal with Diller's IAC calls for the formation of a new company that will "unite producers, creators, advertisers and distributors under one roof and produce all forms of content for distribution across a variety of platforms." NBC Universal is considering investing in the new venture and will have "platform partnerships" with it as it gets rolling.
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That's what happens when you rely on hype to hire people instead of numbers.
"The Office," "Ugly Betty" and "The Biggest Loser" are mentioned as "hits" Ben Silverman produced, but The Office is not a hit. It needs to be constantly propped up and hyped at great cost to deliver mediocre ratings.
Ugly Betty may have been promising, but it started to so-so ratings and slid afterwards into mediocrity.
And those are Silverman's two biggest shows.
Is it really a surprise to anyone but Jeff Zucker (who is the man who really needs to be given the boot) if Mr. Silverman could not help NBC..?
Great I wish him well. Now can they reverse the Leno at 10pm 5 nights a week?
Please tell me if i am wrong, but isn't this the guy who pulled the plug on Journeyman and pushed the Bionic Woman and Knight Rider into our faces, or was that someone else? If it was him, it was about time that he departed. Even if he wasn't solely responsible for those horrible decisions, NBC as a whole has presented some awful shows over the past two years while prematurely cancelling very good ones. A little shake up within the ranks probably was overdue.
It's about time. Now maybe, and it's a very big maybe, but maybe NBC can become worth a damn again.
Maybe it's time to bring back FRED Silverman...
Rena is right. It is Jeff Zucker who ran the network into the ground and it is Jeff Zucker who is almost solely responsible for that fact that NBC is still in the ground all these years later. Things will not change significantly until Jeff Zucker is fired but that, unfortunately, is about as likely to happen as NBCU hiring a unicorn to replace him. I think it is sad that Ben Silverman is leaving -- I think he was a strong proponent of Friday Night Lights; I hope it is not in danger now that he will not be around to protect it. He was willing to keep the few quality shows NBC had on their schedule even though they weren't huge ratings grabbers. Their schedule is otherwise a wasteland of terrible programming and trash reality. Add to that 5 nights a week of Leno's lowest-common-denominator "humor" and there isn't much reason to watch NBC anymore. I miss the days when Ed, The West Wing, and Law & Order ruled Wednesday nights and Thursdays brought new episodes of Friends and Will & Grace. How far they have fallen since that time.
NBC wont get outta this funk until they get a *true* hit on their hands. I probably wont watch much NBC for a while since Kings is done now.
The OFFICE may not be a ratings "hit"
but it's still better written than 95% of shows on TV. Suits are often wrong---but mostly because the majority of the TV audience is comprised of people w/quotidian taste, preferring predictable dialogue & plots to something inventive. AND I don't mean the aptly titled LOST, which lost it's way early & should just get lost. . ..
I've since long scratched NBC off my TV Watch List. They're downright daft (don't want to say 'stupid' - since that word caused the Prez a week's news-time) - seeing as they didn't learn from their previous mistakes - where they let JAG go despite good ratings - and when CBS scooped it up, it became an almost 'hit' - so, now they're repeating the judgment error by letting Medium go to CBS. Hope it becomes a hit there. The only show I watch on NBC is MERLIN. Otherwise I've stopped getting it on.
Advice for the new people in charge of NBC. First, raid your other NBC/Unverisal networks. Grab Burn Notice, Monk, In Plain Sight, and Royal Pains from USA. Snag Eureka and maybe (emphasis on Maybe) Caprica from Syfy (or whatever the heck it is called now). I am sure I am missing some.
Next, give Leno maybe 1 or 2 nights (not 5). Monday night at 9pm would be the one I would give him. Maybe Sa****ay.
Next. Biggest Loser. 1 hour, no more.
Next. Mix thoroughly together. Your output should be something like:
Sunday: Sunday Night Football
Monday: Heroes, Burn Notice, Leno
Tuesday: Biggest Loser, Eureka, Monk
Wednesday: Mercy, Caprica, SVU
Thursday: SNL, Parks, Office, 30 Rock, Royal Pains
Friday: Friday Night Lights, Southland, Trauma
Mid season, switch out Chuck for Heroes and In Plain Sight for Burn Notice. Parenthood in for Royal Pains or Monk. Eureka in for Caprica. Let Law and Order finally go away oor swap it in at Mid Season. I am sure there are some other dramas to put in as well.
This might not be exactly right but the point being get rid of Leno every night. Steal some of your shows that probably would do okay on network TV if they were not stuck in cable land, and put some entertainment back on the network. Quit trying to remake shows. Light on the "reality TV". Take some chances. Use some material from shows you already have. Might be tough with some of the shows that are in Season 2 or 3. So you have to make a hard call on starting from the begining or just catching mid stream. Most of them are 13 episode seasons anyway so you could catch up in in a season or 2 running them full time if you want. Or Fall, off in Spring, on in Summer. Lots of options.
Just a humble opinion.