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EXCLUSIVE: This is a really fast-moving story. For months now, I've been asking my sources when is NBC going to give more power to real programmers since salesman Ben Silverman isn't one. So this morning Paul Telegdy suddenly and unexpectedly resigned from BBC Worldwide America. Now I'm told NBC is in negotiations with him about overseeing unscripted entertainment and possibly scripted as well. And my sources inform that it would be Telegdy's decision whether to fire or keep NBC's current reality czar Craig Plestis who only has months left on his contract. Now get this: the negotiations call for Telegdy to be given a bigger job (like NBC Entertainment President which is still a vacant title) in a year or to get paid off. This could solve NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker's primary problem right now: how not to look like he made a mistake hiring Ben Silverman and still get the programming that the network needs to start succeeding. So Zucker could re-up Silverman and at the same time hire programmers in subordinate roles.
I'm told Craig Plestis had been behind closed doors most of the day speaking to his attorney. And finally Plestis went to Ben Silverman and asked if he were being replaced by Telegdy, as insiders speculated to me today when Paul quit the BBC. Silverman told him no. A week ago, I reported that Plestis was panicking about the rumor he was being shitcanned as NBC Entertainment's EVP of Alternative Programming, Development and Specials. (The problem was that, beyond America's Got Talent, no recent NBC reality shows were sticking. Plestis "hasn't done anything at all in the three years he's been there," one of my sources confided.)
Telegdy may or may not be able to fix NBC Entertainment's primetime which this fall failed yet again. In an effort to sell more shows and formats to U.S. outlets, BBC Worldwide America in April streamlined its sales and production operations under Telegdy, the Beeb exec most responsible for exporting Dancing With the Stars to ABC. As the BBC Worldwide America EVP of TV sales and content & production, Telegdy was also given power for TV sales and co-production dealmaking for the U.S. division, as well as production. So his job has been to do both scripted and unscripted, which means he'd expect no less at NBC. Telegdy, who reported to BBC Worldwide America prez Garth Ancier, had been the Beeb's point man in Los Angeles since 2004 and overseen the U.S. adaptations of Beeb hits including Dancing With the Stars and ABC's spinoff Dance Wars: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann, NBC's Clash of the Choirs, and CBS' embarrassingly short-lived Viva Laughlin.
"He's considered extemely intelligent and a master manipulator and adept at corporate politics," one informant told me, adding, "Look out, Ben." So Zucker may also have in hand Silverman's replacement when, not if...
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Look out Ben? I understand your feelings but Ben has risen to the level where he is untouchable. Sure he could be fired but it doesn’t matter. Ben is no longer worried about the day to day of his career. He’ll move on to bigger and better. Very hard to stop someone at his level unless they stop themselves ie; a murder conviction etc.
I hope NBC starts looking for new comedic talent. I have noticed in recent years the casting of shows is narrow in focus. Almost as if casting directors are no more than phone operators. Back when I started at a major agency casting directors were in charge of finding new talent. Especially funny talent. Over the past six months I have seen some exciting new talent on the road ie; Dean Edwards, Theo Von, Iliza Schlesinger etc. I think that is what NBC should be focusing on. Not the executive shuffle.
Should be Dinsmore -no question. Talent and insight and always a pleasure to work with.
Steve, your comments are coming from someone who clearly has never worked with Craig. He’s a straight-up douche and Paul would be a welcome burst of fresh air into that stale, buttock-clenching office.
You can get on your casting soap box all you like, but with people like Plestis in power, suffer across the board.
Nikki – Variety actually gave you props.. Yeah! Keep up the excellent, excellent work…
Ben has his Fuck You money, so he really has nothing to look out for. Pity, really. The fish stinks from the head in NBC’s case. Graboff ought to start looking for the exit, methinks.
where do they find these guys? who has been the best programmer of network programs over the last 10 years? he might be an asshole but Mr. Moonves knows what he’s doing. He learned his trade actually making shows at Warners. What does this guy know about building a slate of scripted comedies and dramas from the ground up. i’m sure he’s a very bright person, but there have got to be stronger choices out there than the guy that brought us Dancing w/the Stars. The guy who should be stepping down is Zucker. Next should be Silverman for his lack of respect for the job, and then I guess Graboff because nobody who runs business affairs should have a vote in network tv.
Telegdy would be the best thing to happen to NBC in quite some time, if Zucker has enough brains to hire him.
It is 9:08pm on Wed night. I love it how Variety had this story up on their site about an hour or so ago without the new information Nikki has. Now, however, the story has vanished from their website completely. I am sure some revised version will resurface soon and someone’s staying up late over on Miracle Mile rewriting it.
Congrats on your 10,000th exclusive in this town Nikki.
Zucker is the problem…he has no clue what he is doing!!! I’m no fan of Craig, but this all falls at
Zucker’s feet…can someone please explain to me why he still has a job!!!
GE should sale NBC immediately before all is lost!!!
Nikki keep up the great work.
Dancing with stars I get. But Dance wars, Clash of the choirs, Grease, and Viva loughlin? Wouldn’t those shows be enough to get a network exec FIRED?
Should be Dinsmore? That’s laughable, the guy is too busy trying to get a date on one of his most recent show. If this is true the first thing Telegdy should do is can the whole alt department and while he is at scripted too.
Ah, the tangled web NBC weaves. The program set up by Kevin Reilly takes a turn for the better when he picks up The Office after Ben Silverman gives him an offer he can’t refuse. It isn’t a exact hit, but Kevin is happy enough with The Office’s progress that the show receives a second season that shows that it has legs. As a result, that same salesman in Silverman manages to land Ugly Betty at ABC while a newer salesman in Paul Telegdy talks ABC into buying Dancing with the Stars.
In the meantime, Jeff Zucker launches NBC 2.0 in time for the fall 2006 season, which includes a surefire hit about the behind the scenes antics of a Late-night Sketch Comedy program created by Aaron Sorkin and Co-Stars Matthew Perry while a sure to fail show about the behind the scenes antics of a late-night Sketch Comedy program created by
a nobodyTina Fey and “includes” Alec Baldwin, and requires Kevin Reilly to program the 8 PM eastern/Pacific hour either comedy or reality.By this time Jeffy Zucker is getting ready to fail upward again, and
falls in loveis infatuated with Salesman Silverman after he learns that Ugly Betty is a hit, and eventually buys him in order to make sure that his shows air only on NBC. This is like CBS managing to take over Warner Bros just for Les Moonves.Fast Forward to today, and it is ABC that is buying up everything that Paul Telegdy offers the network. With that success, Zucker is infatuated with Salesman Telegdy, and he will merge the reality and entertainment divisions once Silverman is pushed out. I don’t know about the rest of you, but the way NBC is being operated nowdays, I get the feeling that our favorite bald guy is going after the flavor of the month.
Come on people, Paul Telegdy is a nice guy but he’s no more qualified for that job than Plestis is for his. There are so many talented people on the sidelines who have produced television before and who come at it from a different perspective… all you’ve got to do is look. It’s classic bad management to think you need to reach so far for a replacement and so far to no real end, Paul was a business affairs exec at the BBC who was sent to the perfectly dormant BBA America because he was liked and really wanted to come to California. Ben needs a strong scripted person, not another reality person with a limited track record. And you wonder why it’s all upsdide down! Jeff Zucker HAS to have pictures of the GE guys. There’s no way someone this incompetent could last this long and ruin a great brand like NBC without them.
Here’s what I don’t understand. Great, creative ideas never come from salespeople, focus groups or bean counters – they come from creative people who know how to create television. Storytellers who genuinely love television not business school suits. The fact that Zucker, the absolute reason NBC has fallen apart over the years, keeps putting these guys slightly less competent than him in place over and over again will certainly lead to failure over again and again. History proves it.
Brandon Tartikoff loved television. Fred Silverman, despite all the cheese, knew how to create shows that people loved. Les Moonves gets it. The douches Zucker keeps putting in place in his obvious mission to take down NBC are simply the people who know how to package or sell other peoples’ creative ideas. That’s where their talent stops.
If you want to succeed, NBC, think about hiring as your head of programming, someone who knows how to CREATE great programming and has a sincere love for television. Of course Kevin Reilly had to be canned cause he was that person. Every move Zucker makes is a recipe for disaster. Don’t believe me? Just look at NBC’s massive collapse as soon as Jeff Zucker stepped into 3000 W. Alameda. Emeril? Coupling? Inside Schwartz? 20 Good Years? Studio 60? How much time do we have? Not much if you’re NBC.
There are brilliant creatives out there who, thanks to the demise of scripted television, are probably not doing much these days. I dunno, if I were running the place I’d call Gary David Goldberg or Marcy Carsey or Larry Gelbart and see if they want to save NBC. They couldn’t do worse than the soulless clones you keep putting behind that desk.
Your parent company GE makes pretty good light bulbs and appliances. Do you have your sales or business affairs people creating them? Doubt it.
I agree with Tom. Dinsmore is a huge douche and Hansen isn’t much better either. All these two do is suck the teet of Plestis. Those two couldn’t find their way out of a paper bag. The whole department needs to go.
NBC fails because Ben buys material from Reveille. If you know who is working at Reveille now you would understand why they are failing.
I 100% agree with you Burbank. However, creative guys cost money, and Jeff Zucker’s mantra is to save as much as you can. That is why he created NBC 2.0. The big thing is that his hits were created by people not named Ben Silverman and Paul Telegdy. In fact, neither of them were involved in any of ABC’s hits. The only hits that NBC has at this point is The Office and 30 Rock which will hit big tonight because of Tina Fey, and next week due to Oprah guest starring though the only two TV guest starring spots ever to make sense would be her visit with Dave in 2005, and Oprah visiting Married, With Children so that Peggy Bundy could meet her idol though plans most likely fell through to make that episode.
Back on topic, you have to spend money to make money and NBC is using all their resources to make total crap. The Peacock is lucky that they have the Super Bowl this season. They are going to need the infusion just to finance pilot season. After that, they have to hope that Paul Telegdy is a better salesman at upfronts than Ben Silverman.
Beautiful Downtown Burbank -
If there was an award handed out for “Best Post of the Year” and the candidates included every single post on every website in existence, yours would be Top 3. Absolutely nailed it.
For anyone on these message boards who doesn’t know how NBC works, every bit of criticism is spot on. The biggest imbeciles ever assembled. Half of them got in easily as assistants, no one ever considers hiring them away, then they climb the ranks! Headed by Zucker!
Over the course of years working w/ NBC, we’d head back to our offices after mtgs w/ NBC execs (Network & Studio), to recap the sheer idiocy we had just witnessed. Our responses? Typically filled with laughter, sometimes speechless disbelief, other times anger.
Aside from Direct TV customer service, I’ve never seen such widespread failure in my life and I’m nearly 40. In fairness, some of the execs are kind, but they’re lightweights. There’s a shocking culture of failure that permeates the building and nothing short of an entire housecleaning will change things.
wow! did i miss something Jessy S.? not a big fan of either guy, but didnt ben sell in ugly betty to abc? i believe thats a hit there. also, keep in mind that while mr silverman may be blowing it on programming (and he is, make no mistake about that) , he has excelled at building bridges in the advertising community and has actually increased the NBC coffers for GE. as long as GE is in charge, and ben keeps ringing the advertising money bell, he will stay on for as long as he wants to..just a fact in corporate america
Hey Jessy S. Yes creative people cost money but I’d bet you all the tater tots in the NBC commissary that Marcy Carsey or Gary David Goldberg or another very successful former showrunner would do the job for free.
No one, other than Jeff Zucker, wants NBC to collapse and die. No one. I bet Zucker could find an incredible, experienced, famous showrunner who’d be willing to drive in from Malibu every day just for the glory of knowing that they might be the one who turned around NBC.
Zucker could sweeten the pot with back end profits and format sales plus a bunch of Tonight Show with Jay Leno t-shirts and hoodies cause NBC won’t be able to sell those after next April anyway.
Come on Zucker, do something completely out of character and make a brilliant move. What do you have to lose? Everyone already thinks you’re an idiot. Prove them wrong.
Paul Telegdy is an insufferable jerk to anyone who is not his boss. On top of that, all he’s done is sold a couple reality formats which he didn’t create in the first place. NBC will make a huge mistake if they hire him.
B. Real,
Couldn’t agree with your post more. I recall once coming out of a meeting at NBC and wondering how this SVP was in his job. He seemed like a total idiot with lack of creative direction. Said idiot is still under the corporate structure.
You are correct, many have risen up through the ranks starting from assistants, over and over again. Not always a bad thing, but in the past decade it hasn’t worked well. But let’s not forget top brass before Zucker – new blood they did try and bring in. Scott Sassa, Garth Ancier to name two. Both fumbled and yet were allowed to stay for a bit. Garth picked up shows that his entire team were against.
It’s an odd culture over there. It’s too bad. NBC has so much rich history and dare I say out of the four (thank God this is annomouys) in the past, NBC used to do the best job of all. It’s sad to watch it go down. Historically, NBC is the best network – but not now.
There are at least 5 top ranking execs at the moment there that have no reason to have there jobs, I’d pay money to watch them try and succeed at another profession – they wouldn’t last a week.
I’ve worked in and around BBC WW as a freelancer for the past 5 years and I can honestly say Paul is an extremely charming, energetic, highly intelligent executive. He is most decidedly a non-jerk, or at least has been to me, someone who he has every right to be a jerk to if he was in fact a jerk. He does have an accent, which may be construed by many as being jerk-like.
Good for NBC. They’ll do much better replacing Plestis with a block of concrete than sticking with him.